Williamsburg Woman Sentenced for Mail Fraud
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Antoinette Reese, 46, of Williamsburg, Va., was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for mail fraud and filing a false tax return. She was also ordered to pay $829,687.00 in restitution.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Robert G. Doumar. Reese pled guilty on September 1, 2011.
According to court documents, Reese worked at a local travel company handling reservations for a Williamsburg Plantation. Both the travel company and Williamsburg Plantation are subsidiaries of the Berkley Group. The defendant handled the account of Ramada Plaza Resorts (RPR), a tourism company that would send customers to Williamsburg Plantation and pay for these accommodations, with a credited commission if the customer purchased a timeshare. In 2001, the defendant formed her own company AW Marketing. She began a false billing scheme whereby she obtained, between 2001 and 2009, over $800,000 from Ramada Plaza Resorts by double billing, billing for cancelled stays and billing for non-Williamsburg hotels. The defendant falsely portrayed to RPR that AW Marketing was a legitimate vendor of Williamsburg Plantation. The defendant failed to include the income from AW Marketing on her tax returns for 2002-2005 and included false and non-existent business expenses from 2006-2009.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant United States Attorney Brian Samuels prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
