Atlanta’s previous chief money officer pleaded responsible Monday in a federal case alleging he utilised tens of countless numbers of bucks in metropolis funds for individual travel and to get two navy-grade machine guns.
Jim Beard, also accused of cheating on his taxes, appeared prior to a federal decide in Atlanta. He pleaded responsible to one count of federal program theft and one particular count of obstructing IRS laws. He faces up to 13 many years in jail.
Beard, 60, also agreed to pay an quantity of restitution to be decided at sentencing, set for July 12. He has agreed to forfeit the equipment guns.
“The (theft) demand mainly suggests that I took dollars or house from the town of Atlanta or some other entity someway connected to the city,” Beard claimed when asked by the decide to articulate what he was pleading guilty to. “The other demand is that I took tax deductions that I was not authorized to acquire.”
Prosecutor Trevor Wilmot said Beard applied countless numbers of bucks in resources from Atlanta, which experienced received federal grants, to pay for the vacation and firearms, which he retained for extra than a yr before abandoning them at the city’s police office. Beard’s travel fees involved a three-evening keep in a Chicago hotel for his stepdaughter to show up at a songs pageant and a excursion with a companion to a jazz pageant in New Orleans, Wilmot explained.
In 2014, Beard falsely claimed on his yearly income tax return variety more than $33,500 in enterprise losses tied to a personal consulting small business that he had not disclosed to the city, Wilmot said. He mentioned the claimed business enterprise losses involved $12,000 in travel costs, some of which experienced been paid out by the city.
Beard faces up to 10 many years in jail on the theft demand and up to 3 a long time on the tax cost. He also faces up to $500,000 in fines. His attorney declined to comment immediately after the plea listening to.
Beard, the Atlanta CFO in former mayor Kasim Reed’s administration, bought two custom-crafted, absolutely automatic rifles with metropolis funds. He ordered the guns, worthy of nearly $3,000, in 2015 and been given them the subsequent year, information clearly show.
His scenario was portion of a yearslong City Hall corruption probe in Atlanta that brought a number of town officials and contractors prior to U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones. Eight defendants were sentenced to jail. Beard was the past defendant experiencing demo it was to begin in Might.
Beard was indicted in September 2020 on three counts of wire fraud, two counts of federal method theft and solitary counts of possessing a device gun, falsifying an application or document and obstructing federal tax legislation. Prosecutors dropped 6 of the expenses as section of the plea offer.
The plea hearing was scheduled April 1, a couple times immediately after the judge denied Beard’s requests to exclude evidence that prosecutors received from the city of Atlanta he also wanted to retain the device guns out of the courtroom.
Beard also tried using to suppress evidence about the harmful mother nature of the guns, arguing that he had not been accused of using them. Prosecutors prepared to explain at trial why federal law typically limits machine gun possession to navy and law enforcement officers, and that such guns were being not wanted by the Atlanta Police Division, information show.
The judge also denied Beard’s try to suppress proof of infidelity, finding relevance in the companions with whom Beard traveled at the city’s price.
Beard made use of his city-issued credit card for personal trips to Chicago, Louisiana and Washington, D.C., according to his indictment. He also made use of town money on a Chicago hotel place so his stepdaughter could show up at Lollapalooza in 2015 and 2016, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors claimed Beard made use of community revenue to stay at The St. Regis Atlanta lodge in Buckhead, exactly where he purchased hundreds of pounds worthy of of home upgrades, non-public dining and a “rose-petal turndown service” for him and his wife.
Beard, who acquired a lot more than $200,000 per year as Atlanta’s CFO from 2011 to 2018, also compensated for perform trips on his town-issued credit score card and then personally held reimbursements he received from meeting organizers, prosecutors alleged.
In 2019, Atlanta’s ethics division requested Beard to spend far more than $100,000 in fines and restitution. In April 2022, an insurance policies business paid the city about $84,000 as restitution for Beard’s improper use of his town-issued credit history card, which had prompted an audit.
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