Former Keeneland Worker Charged With Stealing $786,080
Lexington, KY – A 12-count federal indictment, filed Wednesday in the US District Court in Lexington, states a former Keeneland employee stole $786,080 in cash, money that should have been placed in cash machines at the Keeneland racetrack.
Larry Wilson of Richmond has been charged with four counts of wire fraud, four counts of filing a false income tax return, three counts of money laundering, and a single count of committing wire fraud as part of the alleged money laundering, according to Kentucky.com. The offenses were said to have occurred during his employment before Wilson was fired in 2009.
Wilson was hired in 2006 and responsible for servicing, routinely maintaining, and transferring funds from 18 automated teller machines (ATMs) at Keeneland – previously working as a security director for the ATM vendor.
According to the indictment, Wilson was the only person who had access to the money inside the machines, but he countered, asserting at least two others had access to the ATM funds, telling the Lexington Herald-Leader he “never took one dime.”
The court documents claim Wilson made cash requests meant for the ATMs, loading them with stacks of $20 bills but accuse Wilson of inflating the request amounts, thus receiving more money than what was needed to stock the cash machines and taking the excess difference. In order to cover up the additional funds, Wilson falsified his income on his tax returns.
Wilson is scheduled to appear in the US District Court in Lexington on May 2. If he is convicted on the pending charges, Wilson could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000.
In August 2011, three Kentucky residents were sentenced on similar charges for using their position to fraudulently obtain millions in fake mortgage loans from 2006 to 2009. John Howard, 43, and Kevin Mullins, 40, both of Richmond, and Brenda C. Stone, 55, of Versailles, pled guilty in May to wire fraud related to false mortgage applications.
The scheme garnered the offenders nearly $3 million in supposed mortgage loan funds – from manipulating the applicable filing liens. Howard was sentenced to 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release, Mullins was sentenced to four years of probation, and Stone was sentenced to one year of probation.
[Image via Shutterstock]
