CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Amy Hilty, 38, formerly of Stanley, N.C. and now residing in Dalton, Ohio, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison for stealing nearly $400,000 from her former employer and for tax evasion, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. ordered Hilty to serve three years of supervision following her prison term, and to pay restitution to her former employer and the IRS.
U.S. Attorney Rose is joined in making today’s announcement by Thomas J. Holloman III, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI).
According to filed documents and yesterday’s court proceedings, from 2008 to 2012, Hilty was employed as accounting manager for a company located in Huntersville, N.C. As the company’s accounting manager, Hilty’s responsibilities included preparing the company’s financial statements, maintaining QuickBooks, preparing payroll and making bank deposits. According to court records, Hilty used her access to the company’s accounting system to divert company funds to bank accounts she controlled. According to court records, Hilty covered her fraud by falsely recording the stolen funds in the company’s books and records as supplies, owner withdrawals and travel expenses, among others. In this manner, court records show that Hilty embezzled $390,156.73 from the company during the relevant time period and used the money to purchase a new home and a BMW vehicle. Court records also show that for tax years 2008 through 2011, Hilty did not file federal income tax returns, and failed to report the diverted income and her salary from the victim company, totaling $520,976.17.
Hilty will be ordered to self-report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The investigation was handled by the IRS-CI and the Huntersville Police Department. The prosecution for the government is being handled by Assistant U.S. 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
