Accounting
Indiana Accountant Sentenced to 41 Months in Federal Prison
Nathaniel Wills, 34, of Anderson, IN, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for stealing almost $1 million from his employer.
Oct. 24, 2024
By Ken de la Bastide
The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.
(TNS)
Oct. 23—ANDERSON, INDIANA — An Anderson accountant has been sentenced to federal prison for the theft of almost $1 million from the Anderson company where he was employed.
Nathaniel Wills, 34, of Anderson, was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $877,507 in restitution after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
According to court documents, for nearly six years, Wills was employed as an accountant and director of administration for an Indiana business. He worked for Indiana Flooring.
In these roles, Wills was entrusted with performing business accounting functions, including writing and signing checks, making electronic payments, performing reconciliations between the company’s accounting and banking records, and maintaining the company’s accounting ledgers.
The court filing alleged that, beginning in August 2020 and continuing until at least February 2022, Wills defrauded his employer by transferring nearly $1 million from the company’s payroll and operating accounts to his personal bank accounts.
The stolen funds, according to the court documents, were used to pay off his outstanding personal debts and for his own personal use, including online gambling.
In total, Wills stole approximately $952,237.06 from his employer through 120 transactions, according to the court documents.
“For a year and a half, this defendant repaid the trust of his employer with deceit and theft, helping himself to nearly $1 million and cooking the books to hide the evidence,” Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a press release. “Fraud and embezzlement can have devastating effects on the victim individuals and companies. The federal prison sentence imposed here demonstrates that those who commit financial crimes will pay a serious price.”
The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon.
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