ALBUQUERQUE – A real estate developer working with the Indian Pueblo Federal Development Corporation (IPFDC) was sentenced late yesterday afternoon in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., for his conviction on embezzlement and tax charges arising out of a scheme to embezzle approximately $3,575,000.00 from the IPFDC. The IPFDC is an Indian tribal organization formed by the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico for the purpose of developing land that once had been the site of the Albuquerque Indian School.
Thomas Keesing, 62, of Pecos, N.M., was ordered to serve 35 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Keesing also was ordered to pay, jointly with his co-defendant, restitution in the amount of $3,575,000 to the IPFDC. In addition, he also was ordered to pay $554,250, the federal taxes owed on the money he embezzled from the IPFDC and failed to report to the IRS, and to perform 360 hours of community service as special conditions of his supervised release. Keesing also was ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.
Keesing and co-defendant Bruce Sanchez, 61, a former Governor of Santa Ana Pueblo, were indicted in Oct. 2012, and charged with a conspiracy offense and ten substantive embezzlement offenses arising out of the scheme to steal funds belonging to the IPFDC. The 15-count indictment also charged Sanchez with three tax evasion counts alleging an aggregate federal tax loss of $655,276, and a misdemeanor count of willful failure to file a tax return. In Aug. 2013, Keesing was charged by information with three misdemeanor counts of failure to file tax returns and those tax charges were consolidated into the case. The information charged Keesing with failure to file federal tax returns for calendar years 2006, 2007 and 2008, even though he received gross income in the aggregate amount of $2,771,250 during those three years.
Between 2003 and 2009, Sanchez and Keesing conspired to embezzle approximately $3,575,000 from the IPFDC. During that time, Sanchez was the president and chief executive officer of the IPFDC. Keesing, a commercial real estate developer and the owner of New Mexico Real Estate, Inc. (NMREI), worked as a consultant for IPFDC in 2002 and 2003. Together, Sanchez and Keesing engaged in a scheme to unlawfully profit from the development of the Albuquerque Indian School property by having Keesing submit false and fraudulently inflated invoices for payment from NMREI to the IPFDC. Sanchez approved the invoices even though the payments were vastly in excess of the value of any services provided by Keesing and NMREI. Keesing then shared the proceeds of the fraudulently obtained IPFDC payments with Sanchez. Between 2003 and 2008 and as a result of this illegal scheme, Keesing and NMREI received $3,775,000 in payments from the IPFDC, including $3,575,000 that was fraudulently obtained. During that same period, Sanchez and Tsachu, LLC, his solely-owned consulting company, received approximately $1,722,823 from Keesing and NMREI.
Keesing entered a guilty plea on Jan. 28, 2015, to aiding and abetting embezzlement from an Indian tribal organization and to a misdemeanor charge of willful failure to file an income tax return in a plea agreement that detailed his role in the embezzlement scheme that defrauded the IPFDC of $3,575,000. According to the plea agreement, Keesing shared the illegally obtained proceeds with Sanchez with Sanchez taking $1,652,823 and Keesing retaining the balance. Keesing acknowledged that Sanchez provided nothing of value in return for this money and used Keesing as a conduit to receive IPFDC funds to which he was not entitled. Keesing participated in the scheme to obtain additional compensation for work he previously performed on behalf of the IPFDC and for which he felt he was not adequately compensated. Although the proceeds Keesing obtained from the IPFDC were taxable income, he failed to file federal tax returns reporting the income.
On Jan. 28, 2015, Sanchez entered a guilty plea to embezzlement from an Indian tribal organization and tax evasion. Sanchez’s plea agreement detailed the embezzlement scheme through which Sanchez and Keesing defrauded the IPFDC of $3,575,000. It states that Sanchez brought Keesing onto the IPFDC development team in 2002 and Keesing performed services for the IPFDC in 2002 and 2003. Thereafter, Sanchez and Keesing entered into a brokerage and development agreement that was never presented to the IPFDC board for approval, and used the agreement as the vehicle to perpetuate their embezzlement scheme. Between Jan. 2005 and Nov. 2008, Keesing and NMREI submitted more than 100 invoices for professional services purportedly provided in connection with the development of the Albuquerque Indian School site. Sanchez arranged for the IPFDC to pay the invoices, and in return, Sanchez and Tsachu, LLC, received more than 100 checks in the aggregate amount of $1,652,823 from Keesing and NMREI. Although this illegally obtained money was taxable income, Sanchez did not report the income to the IRS.
Sanchez was sentenced on Sept. 16, 2015, to 51 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay, jointly with his co-defendant, restitution in the amount of $3,575,000 to the IPFDC. The court also ordered Sanchez to pay the IRS $655,276.00 the federal taxes owed on the money he embezzled from the IPFDC and failed to report to the IRS, as a special condition of his supervised release.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of the Interior’s OIG, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathon M. Gerson.