Anderson accountant sentenced to federal prison for embezzling nearly $1M from his employer

Nathaniel Wills, 34, Anderson, has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $877,507 in restitution after pleading guilty to wire fraud.

According to court documents, for nearly six years, Wills was employed as an accountant and Director of Administration for an Indiana business. In these roles, he was entrusted with performing business accounting functions including among other things, writing and signing checks, making electronic payments, performing reconciliations between the company’s accounting and banking records, and maintaining the company’s accounting ledgers.

Beginning in August 2020, and continuing until at least February 2022, Wills defrauded his employer by transferring nearly $1 million to which he knew he was not entitled from the company’s payroll and operating accounts to his personal bank accounts.

The stolen funds were used to pay off his outstanding personal debts and for his own personal use, including online gambling.

It an attempt to conceal his scheme, Wills made false entries in the company’s accounting system by recording that transfers of funds were payments of invoices, falsifying inventory logs, listing jobs as unpaid, and voiding checks. He also obtained a principal advance of $80,000 from his employer’s line of credit in order to meet the company’s payroll and vendor payment obligations.

In total, Wills stole approximately $952,237.06 from his employer through 120 transactions. Wills’ conduct resulted in substantial financial hardship to the company.

“For a year and a half, this defendant repaid the trust of his employer with deceit and theft, helping himself to nearly $1 million and cooking the books to hide the evidence,” said Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. “Fraud and embezzlement can have devastating effects on the victim individuals and companies. The federal prison sentence imposed here demonstrates that those who commit financial crimes will pay a serious price. I commend the FBI and our federal prosecutors for their efforts to investigate these crimes and hold the defendant accountable.”

“This was not just a financial crime but an act of betrayal of the defendant’s employer that could have had a devastating and crippling effect on the business and its employees,” said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert J. Stapleton. “Anyone who believes they can steal without consequence will find out the FBI aggressively pursues those who exploit their positions of trust for personal gain to ensure they are held accountable.”

The FBI investigated this case. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon.

U.S. Attorney Myers thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meredith Wood and Tiffany J. Preston, who prosecuted this case.