A former Dauphin County business owner has been sentenced to jail for stealing nearly $6 million from small businesses and non-profits. William Sullivan, 45, pleaded guilty to theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, a first-degree felony, for stealing $5,737,948 from clients between 2006 and 2011.
As part of his guilty plea, Sullivan was ordered to pay approximately $4 million in restitution to victims. His company, Net Pay Solutions, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011. Sullivan was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in state prison, followed by 54 months of probation.
The sentence will run concurrent to a federal sentence Sullivan received earlier this month for similar crimes. Sullivan’s company had clients across Pennsylvania, as well as Maryland and New Jersey. According to Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Sullivan badly hurt Pennsylvania businesses by not paying their federal, state and local tax returns for five years – as he promised to do under agreement for his clients.
These were small businesses and non-profits – some of which were forced to close their doors because of his repeated thefts. He violated their trust and stole their money. His guilty plea and sentencing today will ensure justice is served. The Office of Attorney General launched an investigation into Sullivan’s payroll firm in 2013, following a referral from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.
Net Pay Solutions was supposed to process payroll, handle the filing of taxes and unemployment compensation for its clients. However, investigators learned that Sullivan stole the $5.7 million by making false entries in a tax-tracking software program, and then manually reversing them out to make it appear as though the funds had been remitted to various taxing authorities – even though they were not.
One company that contracted with Net Pay Solutions, Network Associates, lost $112,391 to Sullivan’s criminal scheme. Dan Ryan of Information Network Associates in Harrisburg stated, I’m very glad Mr. Sullivan will be held accountable for his crimes. His thefts and deceit negatively affected my business and employees. I am grateful that Attorney General Shapiro and his office are working to protect Pennsylvanians like myself from such a horrendous criminal scam.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office is standing up to protect small businesses and non-profits from both crimes like the large theft perpetuated by Sullivan, as well as consumer scams. The public can be assured that the Office of Attorney General will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that those who engage in white-collar crimes are held accountable for their actions.
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Key Facts
- State: Pennsylvania
- Agency: Pennsylvania AG
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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