"

Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 40 seconds

Former CPA Draw 15 Years for Ponzi Scheme     

A former CPA in south-central Missouri has been sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison for conducting a Ponzi scheme that swindled victims of millions. Douglas Richardson, age 47, was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison and ordered to pay his victims more than $8.8 million in restitution.

 Richardson was convicted on Nov.  17,  2019 of six counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering.

A sole practitioner, Richardson had operated Douglas A. Richardson, CPA, LLC since Feb. 2009 and was former CFO, treasurer, and CPA of Smart Prong Technologies, Tulsa, Okla., from Dec. 2013, to June 2016. Smart Prong developed technology, and manufactured devices for charging cell phones.

Richardson transferred at least $4.4 million from Smart Prong bank accounts into his personal and business accounts and solicited loans from several clients. While the money was supposed to be invested, part it was used for his personal benefit, and to pay other individuals including prior investors and others to whom he owed money.

For example, Richardson enticed a client to loan Richardson $365,000 from his business to provide funding for a real estate deal and an automobile dealership. Instead, the CPA used $230,000 to repay to another individual, spent $72,704 to pay off a Chevrolet Corvette, and issued a $7,500 check to himself.

Bob Scott
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
Read 3818 times
Rate this item
(1 Vote)

Visit other PMG Sites:

Template Settings

Color

For each color, the params below will give default values
Tomato Green Blue Cyan Dark_Red Dark_Blue

Body

Background Color
Text Color

Header

Background Color

Footer

Select menu
Google Font
Body Font-size
Body Font-family
Direction
PMG360 is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal data we collect from our subscribers/agents/customers/exhibitors and sponsors. On May 25th, the European's GDPR policy will be enforced. Nothing is changing about your current settings or how your information is processed, however, we have made a few changes. We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to make it easier for you to understand what information we collect, how and why we collect it.