THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200378
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
A Newport News accountant who made a short-lived bid for Congress was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for bilking about $1.9 million from the federal government through his tax-preparation firm.
The man, Rocky D. Spencer, 37, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and illegally structuring financial transactions to avoid bank reporting laws.
Spencer's mother, Margaret Spencer, 56, and his sister, Teresa Spencer, 34, were placed on five years probation and 180 days of home detention for aiding in the scheme.
U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar said the Spencers did not have the means to make restitution or pay a fine.
Rocky Spencer operated Dominion Financial Services until the Internal Revenue Service raided the firm in February 1993.
Over the course of a year, Spencer duped his customers by adding fictitious children to their tax forms, inflating the refunds and pocketing the mark-up.
The accountant filed the claims electronically, substituting his business address for the addresses of the clients. When the inflated refund checks arrived at Dominion Financial Services, Spencer forged the clients' signatures, deposited the checks in his account and then wrote checks to the clients for the amount due them.
While operating the scheme, Spencer made a brief run for Congress in 1992, suggesting that the United States pull an ``economic Hiroshima'' on Japan because of that country's trade practices.
KEYWORDS: TAX FRAUD TRIAL SENTENCING by CNB