Former Mayor Becky Campo took another hit this week when one of her former contract employees was convicted of tax fraud. Apparently, Becky’s employee defrauded multiple clients who were using Patterson Financial to file their tax returns. Specifically, she was convicted of diverting clients’ tax refunds into a personal account and then providing the clients with a reduced portion of their refunds than they were supposed to get. She is now facing sentencing in October, where she could get as much as 20 years in Federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
Becky claimed that she let the woman go once she learned of the scheme, but the former employee indicated that she left the company on her own and that Becky had to know what was happening.
There have been strong indications that the FBI has been conducting some kind of ongoing investigation around town. Could this be the first salvo in a larger investigation which includes Patterson Financial, our former mayor and perhaps others? In the weeks following the release of the Grand Jury report, which, among other things, found that Mayor Campo failed to prove her residency in the city during her last two-plus years as mayor, this is a tough time for Becky indeed. There well may be other shoes about to drop, and the City should tread very carefully as it considers its response to the Grand Jury report, particularly as it relates to our former mayor. This is very likely not the final chapter on this subject.
For more information, click here for the Patterson Irrigator article. Click here for the Modesto Bee article.
