April 6 (UPI) — A former Alaskan city treasurer has been charged with bilking more than $1 million in a nearly decade-long embezzlement scheme.
Jess George Adams, the former treasurer of Houston, Alaska, has been charged in a 31-count indictment over accusations of embezzling more than $1.16 million from the city and a former employer, identified only as an equipment company in near-by Wasilla city, from 2015 to 2022.
The indictment, which was returned last week but announced Wednesday by the Justice Department, includes 17 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of money laundering and six counts of tax evasion.
Adams was the Houston city treasurer from 2015 through 2018, during which time he embezzled some $274,000, the court document states.
According to prosecutors, he used his position to direct 77 electronic money transfers from the city to a bank account in his name and made fictitious entires in the city’s accounting software to make it appear as if the funds went to legitimate businesses.
Adams was placed on administrative leave in October 2018, which is when you also closed the account the money was sent to in an effect to conceal his embezzlement activity, the court document states. He resigned the next month.
In November the following year, Adams began working for the unnamed equipment company, where prosecutors accuse him of embezzling some $887,500.
Prosecutor also accuse him of laundering the money embezzled from the company by making several wire transfers from his personal bank account to other accounts, with each transaction at a value greater than $10,000.
If convicted, Adams faces a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment for each wire fraud count, 10 years for each money laundering count and five years for each count of tax evasion.
In a letter to residents on Tuesday, Houston Mayor Carter Cole said that they decided for the city to be publicly named as a victim in the case “so that citizens of City of Houston would be informed of the criminal activities so the City Council could move the City of Houston forward to a much brighter and shining future.”