The Defendant Received over $576,000 in Payments for Fraudulent Warranty Claims
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chief U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney today sentenced John Wesley Clark, 43, of Charlotte, to 30 months in prison on wire fraud and tax fraud charges, receiving over $576,000 in payments for fraudulent warranty claims, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Clark was also ordered to serve two years under court supervision after his release from prison and to pay $576,669.75 in restitution to Samsung and $184,710.00 as restitution to the IRS. He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return in June 2015.
Thomas J. Holloman, III, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) and Thomas L. Noyes, Inspector in Charge of the Charlotte Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service join U.S. Attorney Rose in making today’s announcement.
According to the filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, Clark was the owner and operator of various Charlotte-area appliance repair companies, including JA Appliance Co; Fitzgerald Appliance Co; BR Appliance; C&A Appliance Co.; D&L Appliance Co.; and J&S Appliance Co. Court records show that beginning in at least 2010 and continuing through 2012, Clark, who is also known as John Isaacs, Jonathan Fitzgerald, and JA Adams, defrauded a major electronics company based in New Jersey by submitting false and fraudulent warranty work order claims, for warranty work that was not performed. According to court records, Clark, sometimes using an alias, established his companies as authorized service centers for the major electronics company. He then submitted the fraudulent warranty work orders that listed, among other things, false customer information, false addresses, false part numbers, and false repair dates. Clark received $576,000 in payments for the fraudulent warranty claims.
Court records also show that for tax years 2010 through 2012, Clark failed to report all of the income he obtained through the fraudulent warranty claims on his federal tax returns. Additionally, Clark filed fraudulent forms W-2 with his federal tax returns that falsely stated that tax withholding had been paid over to the IRS.
Clark will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
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In a separate case, on Monday, Nov. 30, 2015, Judge Whitney also sentenced Sammie Marks, 42, of Matthews, N.C., to 12 months and 1 day in prison and one year of supervised release on a tax evasion charge. He was also ordered to pay $158,614 as restitution to IRS.
According to court records, Marks was the owner of “Marks Metal and Salvage," located in Charlotte. Court records in that case show that between tax years 2009 and 2013, Marks deposited checks and cash receipts from his businesses and its customers totaling over $1.1 million into his personal bank account, which he did not include in his personal or business tax returns filed with IRS. As a result of the unreported gross receipts, Marks had additional tax liability of $158,614.
The investigation into Clark was handled by IRS-CI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Marks’ investigation was handled by IRS-CI. Both cases were prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jenny G. Sugar of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
