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Woman embezzles over $3M from tax firm to allegedly feed gambling addiction
Kaieteur News – A former supervisor for a Financial Management and Tax Consultancy business was on Friday placed on $200,000 bail for allegedly embezzling over $3 million from the company she worked for.
Solana Wills at court on Friday.
The defendant, Solana Wills, 31, appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly. Wills was slapped with six charges which allege embezzlement by clerk or servant.
Those charges allege that Wills between August 1, 2021, and December 20, 2021, at Durban Street, Georgetown, while being a Clerk or Servant of Leibrands Financial Management and Tax Consultancy, fraudulently embezzled the sum of $3,134,290, in cash, received or taken into possession by her for or on account of her employer.
The woman denied the charges that were read to her and Senior Magistrate Daly granted bail and the matter was adjourned until April 8, 2022.
According to information, Wills was employed with Leibrands Financial Management and Tax Consultancy in the capacity of a supervisor. She was responsible for receiving funds from clients on behalf of the company and to ensure that the clients are satisfied with the service that entailed paying their employees’ dues to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), among other things.
It was stated that between August 1, 2021, and December 20, 2021, Wills reportedly received the sum of $2,202,488 from Elite Protection Service; $241,256 from Faizal Imports; $20,160 from Kings Armed Guards Inc., and $382,000 from Amanda’s Bridal, in order to pay their employees NIS.
However, having received the money in the company’s name, Wills allegedly stole the said sums.
Moreover, between December 1, 2021, and December 20, 2021, the defendant received the sum of $400,000 from Jacobs Jewelry to make PAYE and VAT payments to Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), and NIS payments, but she allegedly embezzled $188,386 from the said amount.
It is further alleged that Wills also stole the sum of $100,000 from the company’s petty cash float between December 13, 2021, and December 17, 2021.
The Leibrands Financial Management and Tax Consultancy, manages accounts for other companies, collects monies or cheques and fulfill payments to NIS and GRA on behalf of those companies. Thereafter, Wills, is tasked with issuing a temporary receipt and pay the required NIS or GRA payments for the clients before then issuing another receipt when that is completed. However, it was noticed that during the period of September to December 2021 no temporary receipts were issued to acknowledge receipt of the monies that was handed to the company to make payments on behalf of their clients.
In December 2021, the company received several calls from various clients stating that NIS and GRA payments were not made. The matter was reported, an investigation was conducted, and Wills was later arrested.
Wills in her caution statement reportedly said that in October 2021, she developed a gambling problem and began doing so at a popular casino. She also reportedly admitted to taking and using money entrusted to pay NIS contributions on behalf of Faizal imports and Kings armed Guards and Elite Protection Services.
In Wills estimation, she stated that she benefitted from approximately $2,300,000 entrusted to Leibrands. The police then sought legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, which led to the charges being instituted against Wills.
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