BY LINDA BENTLEY | OCTOBER 9, 2013
Former Scottsdale CPA found guilty on all 30 felony counts
Wise has 102 felony counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and transactional money laundering currently pending in federal court
PHOENIX – On Monday, a jury found Danny Wise, a former Scottsdale CPA, guilty on all felony charges, which included 22 counts of theft and eight counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 20.
Indicted in 2009, Wise, who has been out on bond, had been granted a dozen continuances, frustrating victims.
While working as a CPA, Wise was accused of stealing money that was to be forwarded to the IRS and/or other taxing authorities on behalf of his clients. He then forged copies of cancelled checks in an attempt to prove money was in fact paid to those agencies.
The crimes were committed between April 2006 and May 2008 with Wise’s CPA license revoked on Dec. 10, 2008.
Meanwhile Wise’s $70 million Ponzi scheme, in which he was accused of conning more than 120 “investors” in at least 13 states out of substantial amounts of money, some, their life savings, began to collapse.
Involuntary bankruptcy proceedings were filed against Wise in November 2008 in an effort to freeze his assets.
In October 2009, Wise was denied discharge and his real estate holdings and personal property were ordered sold at auction.
As a result, Wise lost homes in Flagstaff and Scottsdale as well as a condo in Manhattan.
Wise has 102 felony counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and transactional money laundering in connection with the Ponzi scheme currently pending in federal court and is scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 3.
