Two cousins who admitted stealing more than $1 million from the Songwriters Guild of America could soon be singing "Jailhouse Rock."The cousins, Anthony Ray, 33, of Providence, R.I., and Nicole Williams, 27, of Brooklyn, admitted the theft last week when pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in Newark Federal Court. They face up to five years in prison.Authorities said that from August 2001 to June 2005, the cousins received a total of $1.2 million embezzled from the guild by a third relative, a royalties manager who was hired in 2001 to oversee its Weehawken, N.J., office.The unidentified manager allegedly funneled the money to Ray in a series of guild royalty checks, investigators with the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service found.Ray ultimately deposited a total of $802,721 in a Providence bank. The manager has not been charged and is still under investigation.The Songwriters Guild of America collects and distributes songwriting royalties for Quincy Jones, the estate of Ray Charles and other stars.Investigators said the theft was not immediately discovered because the funds came from an escrow account set aside for songwriters the guild has not located.The investigation began after the bank notified the IRS of large deposits by Ray – banks are required to report transactions over $10,000.Authorities said the IRS quizzed the royalties manager, who stalled them, and in the meantime, the three allegedly bought property in upstate New York in an attempt to hide the money.Guild President Rick Carnes, reached at his Nashville home, said, "They hid it well. Once we discovered the money was missing, we had to spend a fortune on accountants trying to trace it. We were sitting down for 18 months putting this thing together. But Anthony Ray couldn’t account for the money, so that brought the FBI in.""If any active songwriters hadn’t been paid the money due them, we would have found out sooner," said Carnes. "We had a system of checks and balances in place but since the accounts were dormant, no one noticed for awhile. We’ve got an ironclad method for avoiding this in the future, though."Charles Sanders, a lawyer for the guild, said, "We’re remaining hopeful that the money will be recovered. Cash reserves have been set aside for nonrecovered funds but we’re hoping it won’t be a large amount."In addition to the prison terms, Ray and Williams each face $250,000 in fines. And Ray faces an additional $100,000 fine on his guilty plea to tax evasion. The duo will be sentenced in December.
NY Daily News (Thanks Dad!)
I bet they were taking money from the dead songwriter’s who no have estates to give the money to.
