Alaska woman sentenced to federal prison for defrauding an Anchorage medical practice

U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced that an Alaska woman has been sentenced in federal court for devising multiple schemes to defraud an Anchorage medical practice of at least $640,000.

Jill Diane Applebury, aka: “Jill Wetzsteon,” 54, d/b/a Applebury Accounting Services, of Anchorage, was sentenced yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess to serve four years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. In November 2018, Jill Applebury pleaded guilty to four counts of bank fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of fraudulent transactions with an access device. The total amount of restitution to be paid to the victim will be determined within thirty days.

According to court documents, from the mid-1990’s until March 2013, Jill Applebury was an independent contractor who performed bookkeeping services for an Anchorage medical practice, which was owned and operated by an Anchorage physician. From at least 2001 until March 22, 2013, Jill Applebury defrauded the Anchorage medical practice in several ways.

One such scheme stems from 2001 through 2009, when Jill Applebury used the medical practice’s funds to pay her Federal Income Tax Withholding without authority. Specifically, Jill Applebury executed unauthorized and fraudulent transactions from the medical practice’s business bank account to the IRS, thereby having the medical practice pay her IRS individual income tax account. IRS Form 945 account transcripts for the medical practice showed that withheld taxes were paid to the IRS for the 2001-2009 calendar years, and applied to Jill Applebury’s individual income tax account. The total amount of unauthorized federal tax withholdings on independent contractor compensation paid by the medical practice for Jill Applebury’s benefit was $84,813.75.

Read more: https://www.anchoragepress.com/busted/alaska-woman-sentenced-to-federal-prison-for-defrauding-an-anchorage/article_40158cda-558a-11e9-8f82-8705c307b494.html