International Courant
ATLANTA (AP) — The previous chief monetary officer for Atlanta pleaded responsible on Monday to stealing cash from town for private journey and weapons and making an attempt to cheat the federal authorities on his revenue taxes.
Jim Beard, 60, pleaded responsible to at least one rely of federal program theft and one rely of tax obstruction in federal courtroom in Atlanta.
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U.S. District Choose Steve Jones is scheduled to condemn Beard on July 12. Beard might face as many as 13 years in jail however is more likely to be sentenced to considerably much less below federal tips.
The previous chief monetary officer for Atlanta has pleaded responsible to stealing cash from town for private journey and weapons and making an attempt to cheat the federal authorities on his revenue taxes.
Beard served as town’s chief monetary officer below Mayor Kasim Reed, managing Atlanta’s monetary assets from 2011 to 2018. Beard is the tenth particular person to be convicted in an anti-corruption probe into Reed’s administration. A lot of the others had been convicted on prices of giving or taking bribes for metropolis contracts. Reed himself has by no means been charged.
Throughout his time in workplace, Beard used metropolis cash to pay for private journeys and to illegally purchase two machine weapons for himself, he admitted in his plea settlement.
Federal prosecutors mentioned Beard stole tens of hundreds of {dollars} from town, though the plea outlined about $5,500 in thefts.
That features spending over $1,200 for his stepdaughter to spend three nights in a Chicago resort room throughout an August 2015 music competition. Beard mentioned he was there to debate rates of interest on metropolis debt.
Beard additionally admitted to purchasing two custom-made machine weapons from Georgia producer Daniel Protection in 2015, paying $2,641.90 with a metropolis verify. Beard had claimed the weapons had been for the Atlanta Police Division — it is usually unlawful for civilians to own machine weapons in the USA — however he saved them till he left them in 2017 on the police division workplace overseeing the mayor’s safety.
He additionally spent $648 on airfare to New Orleans to attend the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Pageant in April 2016, later deducting the identical expense from his revenue taxes by telling the IRS it was for his private consulting enterprise. Beard additionally double-dipped by charging town practically $1,000 in journey bills to a New York assembly with a bond regulatory company after which getting the identical company to reimburse him $1,276.52.
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Beard additionally claimed $33,000 in losses from his consulting enterprise on his 2013 revenue tax return, with the IRS finally permitting him to deduct $12,000 in enterprise journey bills he by no means spent.
Below the plea, Beard is giving up his declare to the weapons and is agreeing to pay again varied entities together with town of Atlanta.
Former Atlanta chief monetary officer pleads responsible to stealing cash from metropolis for journeys and weapons
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