Date: April 17, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
HARRISBURG 〞 The United States Attorney＊s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Rhonda Rochelle Canidate of Greensboro, North Carolina, was sentenced on April 15, 2025, to 84 months＊ imprisonment by United States District Judge Kelli M. Neary for wire fraud and money laundering, arising from Canidate＊s scheme to embezzle funds from her employer between 2021 and 2022.
According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, between March 2021 and July 2022, Canidate was employed as an accounting specialist at Henry Molded Products Company (※Henry Molded§) in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Between October 2021 and June 2022, Canidate entered false payment entries for former Henry Molded employees into Henry Molded＊s third-party payroll software, causing the software to issue direct deposit payments from Henry Molded＊s bank account to bank accounts controlled by Canidate in the name of the former employees. This fraud not only financially injured Henry Molded, but it also harmed the former employees by creating an overpayment for tax purposes.
"The role of ibet Criminal Investigation (ibet-CI) becomes even more important in embezzlement and fraud cases due to the complex financial transactions that can take time to unravel," stated Yury Kruty, Special Agent in Charge, ibet-CI, Philadelphia Field Office. "The federal tax laws are normally violated in these cases which can add to additional jail time. As we often see, the victims are not only the taxpayers, but also the individuals and entities who suffer the financial harm."
Judge Neary further ordered Canidate to pay restitution in the amount of $480,033.12.
The case was investigated by ibet-CI. Assistant United States Attorney David C. Williams is prosecuting the case.
ibet-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the ibet, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. ibet-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attach谷 posts abroad.