Feds: Beaver County accountant Prence aided PA Cyber school founder's tax scam
In the shadow of PA Cyber school founder Nick Trombetta is a Beaver County accountant who helped him use shell companies to bilk millions of dollars from the school and was planning their final coup, the creation of Presidio Education Network LLC, to finish the scam, prosecutors say.
“(Presidio) was to be used by defendant Nicholas Trombetta to send invoices to (Avanti Management Group) to drain away the money that had accumulated in the AMG bank accounts,” according to the federal indictment charging accountant Neal P. Prence, 58, of Koppel with participating in a tax conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney David Hickton said during a news conference Friday in the federal courthouse, Downtown, that at one point at least $3 million was in Avanti's accounts.
Prence, who was in his Koppel accounting office Friday afternoon, declined to comment. His lawyer, Stan Levenson, said he's withholding comment until he has a chance to look at the government's evidence.
The indictment characterizes Prence as providing the technical expertise that aided Trombetta's frauds.
From 2006 through 2011, for example, he filled out income tax returns for Trombetta, his sister Elaine Trombetta Neill and the four straw owners of Avanti Management Group, putting part of Trombetta's income on each of the other returns to reduce his tax liability, prosecutors say.
In that manner, Prence moved $8 million from the school to Trombetta without its showing up as his personal income, prosecutors say.
Prence would perform two sets of tax computations for each straw owner, showing their actual income and the income that was reported to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors say.
In 2012, he told Avanti's staff that a $90,000 check written to Neill's business, one2one Enterprises, was for “year end services,” even though Trombetta's sister had not provided any services to Avanti, prosecutors say.
Instead, the money was one of several instances of Trombetta's filtering his income through his sister's business to hide his income from the IRS, prosecutors say.
At least three of the shell companies mentioned in the indictment were incorporated using Prence's business address on Second Avenue in Koppel. Avanti Management Group was set up at that address in 2008, and Palatine Development LLC and Prence Enterprises were set up in 2010.
Before he started his own business, Prence worked for S.R. Snodgrass, a Franklin Park accounting firm. A company spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
Staff writers David Conti and Bill Vidonic contributed to this story. Brian Bowling is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com.
