Mount Vernon Man Indicted for Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, and Making a False Tax Return

INDIANAPOLIS—Joseph H. Hogsett, United States Attorney, announced that Richard E. Brown, 53, of Mt. Vernon, Ind., was charged by a federal grand jury sitting in Evansville, Wednesday, March 30, 2011, with multiple counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and making a false tax return. Following a return of indictment, federal agents arrested Brown. The indictment is the result of a lengthy investigation by special agents of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The indictment alleges that Brown, while serving as office manager and bookkeeper of an Evansville family business, used credit cards from that business to pay his own personal expenses without authorization. Allegedly, Brown also used checks of his former employer to pay the expenses of his church where he had also served as bookkeeper. Following these thefts, Brown filed false federal income tax returns which omitted the embezzled funds. As a result, the government lost thousands of dollars in taxes due by Brown. The loss to the family business is alleged to be over $100,000.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Warden, who is prosecuting the case for the government, Brown faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each fraud count, and three years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each tax count. Brown was released following an initial hearing held in Evansville this morning before Judge Young. A jury trial is scheduled for May 31, 2011.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.