CPA gets 18 months for fraud schemes
bizjournals.com | 11/14/08 | $778,336 | suspect: James Elliot Coleman | victim: Westport Allen Village School
A certified public accountant and former charter school president received an 18-month prison sentence and a $468,805 restitution order for his involvement in various mortgage and investment fraud schemes.
James Elliott Coleman, 60, of Raytown, was formerly president of the Westport Allen Village School.
He was accused of defrauding a widow and her daughter in a $778,336 mortgage fraud scheme, which he did to repay money he had stolen from the charter school.
Coleman also was tied into the mortgage fraud scheme that involved former Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields and her husband. In that scheme, Coleman supplied straw buyers for the Shields residence with letters that fraudulently claimed Larry and Linda Barshaw were self-employed when in fact Coleman didn't even know the Barshaws.
Shields and her husband were acquitted in that case, but the other co-defendants in the scheme pleaded guilty or were found guilty.