OBSERVER Staff Report

BUFFALO — A Westfield woman pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to charges of wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

Alicia Raynor, 42, entered the plea Tuesday before U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to U.S. Attorney John D. Fabian, Raynor was hired as a business manager for Compassion at Home Inc., with duties including managing company finances and payroll. At various times during the company’s operation, payroll and other financial payments were made from different company bank accounts.

While working as a business manager for the company, Raynor opened an account with Intuit Inc., a payroll and payment processing service located outside New York. The Intuit account enabled Compassion at Home, by way of wire transfers, to direct deposit payroll into employees’ bank accounts and otherwise make other direct deposit payments related to Compassion at Home’s business expenses. The payments were made using an accounting software package known as Quickbooks, which linked to Compassion at Home’s bank account.

While employed with Compassion at Home, Raynor diverted money from Compassion at Home’s bank accounts to accounts that she controlled. In order to avoid detection, Raynor disguised Quickbook entries to make it appear that the payments were to Bank of America, Capital One or Compassion at Home employees.

Between August 2015 and June 2016, the Westfield woman fraudulently diverted approximately $238,871.58 from the company’s bank account. For example, on May 19, 2016, Raynor caused a wire transfer in the amount of $2,978.19 from Intuit’s account to a joint checking account with her husband, with an entry in Quickbooks indicating that the payment was to Bank of America.

In addition, for the tax years 2013 through 2016, Raynor received $1,214,444 in payments from Compassion at Home that she did not report as income on her tax returns for those years. The Internal Revenue Service estimates tax owed for these tax years is $370,005. On May 15, 2017, Raynor caused the filing of a U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, for the 2015 tax year, falsely claiming a total income of $52,290, and income from Compassion at Home in the total amount of $29,615.14.

Raynor is scheduled for sentencing July 8.