Former Center Township Tax Collector Sentenced To 1 Year In Prison For Embezzling $1M
CENTER TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA/AP) - Center Township's former longtime tax collector was sentenced to a year in prison for embezzling more than $1 million.
Jeanne Bowser from Aliquippa was sentenced in federal court to 12 months and one day in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Bowser was convicted of wire fraud and filing false income tax returns.
Bowser had collected taxes for Center Township and the Central Valley School District for several decades before resigning in 2019 after an audit. The Beaver County District Attorney's Office filed various charges against her the following year, but those counts were later withdrawn and the case was referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Starting in 2011, Bowser wrote checks to herself totaling $622,702 and deposited them in her own bank account, according to court documents. Beginning in 2013, she collected another $405,496 in cash payments and also deposited those in her own bank account.
Bowser commingled tax payments for the town so she would have access to more money, prosecutors said, noting that she used school taxes to pay township taxes and vice versa. She also made false representations to tax authorities indicating that tax payments were being collected and remitted when they were not, prosecutors said.
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