57 Month Sentence for San Francisco Man Who Pleaded Guilty to Embezzlement from Non-Profit

I’ve written before about embezzlement or misappropriation leading to tax charges.  The recent sentencing of Robert Bradley Strahan is another example of that, though in a more classic example of embezzlement.  Strahan embezzled over $900,000 from his non-profit, where he was a CFO.  I suppose it goes to show that not everyone working for a non-profit has the same view of the importance of making a profit.  Unfortunately, he also failed to report the money on his return and pay the taxes.  According to the press release:

Strahan, 51, of San Francisco, pleaded guilty on November 3, 2014, to wire fraud, mail fraud, and tax evasion. According to the plea agreement, Strahan admitted to embezzling more than $920,000 from a non-profit trade association in San Francisco where he worked as the chief financial officer. Strahan’s responsibilities included bookkeeping, payroll, and accounting. As the CFO, he had complete control over and access to the association’s books, records, and bank accounts. Without the knowledge or authorization of the non-profit trade association, Strahan wrote and cashed checks payable to himself and to “Cash” totaling over $550,000; he used the association’s credit cards to make unauthorized purchases totaling over $250,000; and he put an acquaintance on the payroll who received over $120,000 but did almost no work. To conceal the money that he embezzled, Strahan made false entries in the association’s accounting systems. Strahan also emailed false financial statements to the board of directors that omitted the funds he was taking for his personal use. Finally, Strahan did not pay income taxes on any of the money he embezzled for calendar years 2009 through 2013, resulting in tax due and owing to the Internal Revenue Service of over $175,000.

The full text of the press release issued by the Department of Justice, can be found here.