Washington County woman who embezzled over $230,000 from HOA, sentenced to 12 months of home detention

Date: April 8, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

St. George, UT - Sharon Lee Ann Gordon of Hurricane, Utah, was sentenced today to 12 months and one day of home detention, and three years' probation as a result of a guilty plea for stealing over $230,000 from an HOA during her time as the HOA treasurer. In addition to her sentence, United States District Court Chief Judge Robert J. Shelby ordered Gordon to pay the remaining $63,448.32 in restitution to the HOA and $20,490 in restitution to the IRS for tax loss for unreported income.

According to court documents and statements made at the change of plea hearing, Gordon embezzled approximately over $232,000 from four Lava Bluff HOA bank accounts between 2016 and March 2022. In execution of the scheme, Gordon diverted the funds electronically by transferring them directly to her personal account, writing checks to herself and her boyfriend and forging other board members' signatures, depositing checks representing HOA member fees directly into her personal accounts, writing checks to casinos from HOA accounts, and withdrawing cash from HOA accounts. Additionally, Gordon falsely reported to the Internal Revenue Service her total income from 2017 through 2021.

"Gordon abused her HOA position of power to steal thousands of dollars for her own personal benefit," said U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah. "Gordon's greed further emboldened her to hide money from the IRS. By teaming up with our federal partners we will continue to investigate and prosecute these cases."

"This case not only saw that those members of the Lava Bluff HOA, were directly harmed by Ms. Gordon's embezzlement, but as is always the case with tax fraud, the American taxpayers as a whole were victimized," said IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Special Agent in Charge Carissa Messick. "Gordon believed that she could shirk her responsibility to her community as well as to the American tax system; however, CI takes its responsibility seriously and will investigate and assist in the prosecution of any violators of these laws."

"Money that was designated for the community's management went to line Gordon's own pockets," said Special Agent in Charge Shohini Sinha of the Salt Lake City FBI. "This case should serve as an example that fraud never pays. The FBI and our partners are committed to identifying and investigating those who abuse their trusted positions."

The case was investigated jointly by the CI and the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office, St. George Resident Agency.

Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Dent of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah prosecuted the case.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.