Former Middletown Resident Sentenced to 5 Years Imprisonment in Federal Fraud Case

WILMINGTON, Del. – David C. Weiss, United States Attorney for the District of Delaware, announced that Michael Boyce, age 57, formerly of Middletown, was sentenced yesterday by U. S. District Court Judge Richard G. Andrews to 60 months of imprisonment on federal wire fraud and tax evasion charges.

According to documents and arguments discussed in open court, beginning in or around 2004, Mr. Boyce began defrauding his employer by submitting fake invoices for computer equipment and supplies that were never provided to the company.  Mr. Boyce was able to submit these invoices because he worked in his employer’s Information Technology Department.  After submitting the invoices through third party vendors, Mr. Boyce completed the fraudulent transactions by falsely logging the equipment as received by the company and forwarding the paperwork to the Accounts Payable Department. Upon receiving payment from the company, the third party vendors would transfer 90% of that payment to Mr. Boyce. Over the course of the twelve years that Mr. Boyce’s scheme went undetected, he stole more than $3.2 million from his employer, all the while rising through the ranks of the IT Department, eventually becoming its director. Though he declared much of his illegal income, Mr. Boyce evaded the payment of income taxes on more than $1 million between 2012 and 2015. Mr. Boyce pled guilty to this scheme on November 27, 2018.

U.S. Attorney Weiss stated, “Today was a day of reckoning for a defendant who, over the course of a dozen years, stole millions of dollars from his employer to line his own pockets.  His calculated and callous conduct not only hurt the company’s bottom line, but abused the trust of his co-workers and the supervisors who promoted him, all the time unaware of the theft.  While Defendant successfully concealed his crimes for years, today they caught up with him.  The five year sentence handed down by the Court should send a message to others contemplating similar crimes that in the end, crime does not pay. ”

“Michael Boyce omitted a significant portion of his income; and in doing so, evaded over half a million dollars in taxes,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Guy Ficco. "The overarching principle of IRS' enforcement strategy is simply this: We protect the integrity of the tax system by ensuring everyone pays the right amount of tax."

The case was investigated by the FBI and the IRS-Criminal Investigation.  It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf.  U.S. Attorney Weiss thanked the investigators for their diligence and dedication in pursuing this investigation.