ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An Albuquerque man, 64-year-old David Wellington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. Under his plea agreement, Wellington faces up to 5 years in prison, he is on conditions of release while awaiting sentencing.
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According to court documents, Wellington and his business partner Stacy Underwood started National Business Services, LLC, in 2005. That business was responsible for the sale and creation of LLC’s under New Mexico State Law. Wellington and Underwood opened the LLC’s for clients and got employer identification numbers from the IRS and opened bank accounts in the name of the LLC’s to allow their clients to remain anonymous. The pair opened at least 192 LLC’s and 114 bank accounts between 2005 and 2015, according to court documents.
In 2006 Wellington and Underwood created three LLC’s in New Mexico for a client. They opened a bank account under one of the LLC’s and provided the client with access and a pre-signed checkbook. Between 2011 and 2015, almost $5 million was deposited and withdrawn from the account. The client at the time had an outstanding IRS assessment for unpaid taxes, penalties and interest for about $1 million. He never filed taxes or reported income for the LLC bank account, allowing him to evade the IRS.
