{"id":54592,"date":"2023-11-04T17:19:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T00:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=54592"},"modified":"2023-11-04T17:21:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T00:21:07","slug":"man-sentenced-to-more-than-nine-years-in-prison-for-5-million-surety-bond-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=54592","title":{"rendered":"Man Sentenced to More Than Nine Years in Prison for $5 Million Surety Bond Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES, CA <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"A Westwood man was found guilty this week of cheating people out of over $5 million by pretending to sell bonds for large-scale building projects and other endeavors, as well as avoiding paying over $1.2 million in taxes, officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was sentenced to nine years and two months in federal prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong sentenced Tommy Lester Watts, 64, also known as “Michael Nesbeth,” “Michael Kent,” and “Alex Mason.” \\<\/span><\/p>\n

He was also ordered to pay $8.9 million in reparations.<\/span><\/p>\n

On February 16, Watts entered a guilty plea to one count of tax evasion and one count of transactional money laundering.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Watts and his companies were not licensed to sell such bonds in California. And his claims about his experience and his clients, which purportedly included governments, his underwriting, and his supporting assets, were not valid. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"To make his scheme appear legitimate, Watts hijacked the corporate filings of other companies and created fake employees and accounts for underwriters and banks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watts caused victims to send his company about $5.2 million, the majority of which he spent on personal items such as classic and luxury cars, rent for high-end apartments, and the purchase of luxury retail goods.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also laundered victim payments through accounts held in the names of corporations that were not registered, used fake taxpayer identification numbers, and then used those accounts to spend victim funds as his own. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"He hid this income from the IRS in tax years 2017 through 2019, in which he failed to file any tax returns. Watts received a total of $4.6 million in income that he failed to report to the IRS for those three tax years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watts has agreed to forfeit to the United States nearly $60,000 seized from two bank accounts he controlled: a Mercedes-Benz car and a Subaru SUV. He also agreed to pay the IRS a total of $4.4 million in restitution, which includes at least $1.8 million for his tax liabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is hard to overstate how devastating this conduct was to [Watts\u2019] victims,\u201d prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. \u201cSome lost businesses, some their life savings, others a property that had been in their family for over 200 years. They describe divorce, eviction, and physical and mental health ramifications\u2014an inability to trust; lost reputations and dreams.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the California Department of Insurance investigated this matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Williams of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted this case.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES, CA A Westwood man was found guilty this week of cheating people out of over $5 million by pretending to sell bonds for large-scale building projects and other endeavors, as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nMan Sentenced to More Than Nine Years in Prison for $5 Million Surety Bond Scam<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES, CA A Westwood man was found guilty this week of cheating people out of over $5 million by pretending to sell bonds for large-scale building\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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