Woman pleads guilty over multi million dollar shoplifting scheme
MILWAUKEE - A woman from Appleton has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for tax evasion. Diane Baugh, 56, is accused of failing to report $300,000 in income she made selling stolen scrapbooking items on the Internet.
The U.S. Attorney's office say Baugh got the items between January of 2005 and April of 2010 from Virginia Akers, a 67-year-old woman from Indiana who stole the merchandise from Hobby Lobby stores around the Midwest. Akers has already been sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Authorities say Baugh sold the items for pennies on the dollar. The actual retail value of all the merchandise is estimated to be more than $2.2-million
Baugh paid Akers $257,000 for the stolen items. She also paid about $46,000 to ship the items. That left her with about $300,000, which she never reported to the IRS.
In fact, she reported no taxable income between the years of 2005 and 2009. That resulted in her getting $86,032 in refunds she wasn't owed.
In addition to the prison time, she has been ordered to pay back Hobby Lobby and the IRS.
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