NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

JANUARY 22, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ACCOUNTANT, FORMER ATTORNEY SENTENCED

FOR WIRE FRAUD SCHEME;

EMBEZZLED FROM BUSINESS CLIENT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that an Overland Park, Kan., man who was an accountant and former attorney has been sentenced in federal court for a wire fraud scheme to embezzle more than $69,000 from a Bosworth, Mo., business.

Christopher Lucas, 44, of Overland Park, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009, to 20 months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Lucas to pay $69,032 in restitution.

On Aug. 5, 2008, Lucas pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Lucas admitted that from May 1, 1999, through April 11, 2005, he participated in a scheme to defraud Mills & Sons Construction. Lucas embezzled funds that were intended to be used to pay the personal and business taxes of the construction company and its owner. Lucas caused the funds, which were intended to be paid to the Internal Revenue Service, to be wire transferred to his personal bank account.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown. It was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

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