Aaron Rossi, a 40-year-old resident of Morton, has pled guilty to two felony charges stemming from his fraudulent activities while employed at a medical clinic located in Bloomington, Illinois. The charges he faces include one count of mail fraud and one count of intentionally underreporting his income to the government.
The scheme unfolded as Rossi, initially targeted in March 2022 with three counts of filing misleading tax returns and later smacked with six counts of mail fraud come July, finally admitted his ploy in front of Chief U.S. District Judge Sara Darrow; he fessed up to not reporting all his cash flow to his bean counter – a sly move to dodge the taxman, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois.
This conman didn't stop at tax evasion. It went for the whole nine yards by raiding his former employer, Central Illinois Orthopedic Surgery's, coffers to live it up, buying swanky threads and an ultra-high-def TV to deck out his pad, which he had conveniently mailed to his doorstep. "Rossi's undisclosed expenditures also included leasing a luxury vehicle for himself and renting a private plane for his bachelor party," the government stated, capturing the sheer opulence of his spending spree.
But etiquette was tossed out the window as he disguised his high-end splurges as "medical supplies" or "uniforms" in the clinic’s books, the government attorneys detailed without a hint of irony Rossi's bankroll's secrecy reached heights in 2017 when he tucked away over half a million bucks from the feds. Serving as a reminder that crime and punishment are acquaintances, Rossi faces up to 20 years behind bars for the mail fraud and an extra three for the tax crime, with both charges possibly hitting his wallet hard too.
While the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, IRS, and FBI wrapped up the case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas F. McMeyer and Tanner K. Jacobs are taking it to the finish line in court.
