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Tennessee Man Convicted of Romney Tax Return Fraud and Extortion
A federal jury in Nashville found Michael Mancil Brown, 37, of Franklin, Tenn., guilty of participating in a scheme to extort $1 million worth of Bitcoin from the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, and others, in exchange for not releasing Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Brown was convicted of six counts of wire fraud and six counts of using facilities of interstate commerce to commit extortion.
According to testimony at trial, evidence recovered from a computer seized from Brown’s home in 2012 implicated Brown in a scheme to defraud Romney, the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, and others, by falsely claiming that he had gained access to the PricewaterhouseCoopers internal computer network and had stolen tax documents for Romney and his wife, Ann D. Romney, for tax years prior to 2010.
Brown was found guilty of participating in the scheme in which a letter delivered in August 2012 to the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Franklin, Tenn., demanded that $1 million worth of Bitcoin be deposited to a specific Bitcoin account to prevent the release of the purportedly stolen Romney tax returns. The letter also invited interested parties who wanted the allegedly stolen Romney tax documents to be released to contribute $1 million to another Bitcoin account.
Similar letters were delivered to the offices of the Democratic and Republican parties in Franklin, causing similar statements to be posted to Pastebin.com. The case was investigated by the Nashville Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service with assistance from the Nashville Resident Agency of the FBI.
“The success of this prosecution is due to the excellent online investigative skill and computer forensic analysis demonstrated repeatedly by the United States Secret Service in this era of increasingly high tech criminal conduct,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Jack Smith.
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled for a date likely in August. Brown faces up to 20 years in prison on the charges of wire fraud, up to 5 years in prison on the charges of extortion, fines of up to $250,000, and orders of restitution to victims.
This case is being prosecuted by U.S. Department of Justice Senior Counsel Anthony V. Teelucksingh and Assistant U.S. Attorney Byron Jones of the Middle District of Tennessee.
Key Facts
- State: Tennessee
- Category: Cybercrime|White Collar Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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