EC tax preparer gets prison for fraud charges
Apr. 10—EAU CLAIRE — An Eau Claire tax preparer will spend five years in prison for fraudulently creating fictional businesses for two of her clients and opening unauthorized bank accounts for those businesses.
Nicolle M. Wilson, 49, was sentenced recently in Eau Claire County Court to two counts of identity theft and one count each of wire fraud against a financial institution, fraud against a financial institution and money laundering.
Judge John Manydeeds ordered Wilson to spend a combination of 10 years on extended supervision or probation following her release from prison.
As conditions of supervision and probation, Wilson must undergo any recommended programming or treatment, and cannot be associated in the finances of other people.
Wilson was fined $8,180.
The prison term is in addition to the five years in prison Wilson received in December for writing herself a $60,000 check to help her build a home.
The money came from the Eau Claire County Humane Association when she was the organization's bookkeeper. Wilson also took money from an Eau Claire dog day care facility while serving as an accountant for the business.
According to the criminal complaints in the tax preparer case:
A town of Washington woman contacted the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office Aug. 17 because she believed someone had used her personal information to open financial accounts in her name.
A Madison financial institution had called the woman to update her contact information. The woman had never banked at the institution and should not have had accounts there.
The address the financial institution had for the woman was the address for Wilson, the woman's accountant and tax preparer.
Wilson had helped the woman apply for a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan through the Small Business Administration for the woman's business.
The woman then learned that a second PPP loan was made in her name for a fictional business. The loan request for the fictional business was for nearly $23,000, which was denied.
On Aug. 19, a second woman contacted Eau Claire police to report that Wilson had been opening bank accounts in her name without her knowledge or consent. The woman said Wilson had been her tax preparer for years.
The same Madison financial institution had called her to ask if she had opened several accounts there, which she didn't.
Wilson had contacted the financial institution to try to open the accounts on the woman's behalf. Wilson said she was opening the accounts for the woman's business, which did not exist.
Wilson tried to transfer $72,000 into the accounts. The woman said she was unaware of where this money might come from.
Authorities learned the $72,000 was transferred from a fraudulent account in the woman's name from a second bank. The money was a PPP loan made in the second woman's name.
Wilson forged the woman's signature and W-9 tax form to complete the money transfer.
