Man Convicted of Embezzling $2 Million from Gun Store
A federal court sentenced Evan Bobzin to two years in prison for stealing more than $2 million in cash from the gun store where he worked.
As the IT lead at Hoffman’s Gun Center, Bobzin stole cash receipts from January 2016 to December 2023, say prosecutors. Though he had worked at the company since 2013, Bobzin waited until his promotion to IT head in 2016 to steal cash from a safe in Hoffman’s front office.
On August 29, 2024, Bobzin pleaded guilty to interstate transmission of stolen money and tax evasion.
Bobzin was also ordered to pay restitution of $2,062,580 and to cooperate with the IRS to pay $436,178 in taxes, as well as penalties and interest.
Bobzin, who is released on a $50,000 bond, is required to report to prison on January 6.
Never Trust Someone Who Shows Up to Work Early…
Bobzin executed his scam by showing up to work before his fellow employees, which provided him the opportunity to disconnect cables between the cameras and the servers. Then he would enter the office where the safe was stored without being caught on camera, according to the charging documents in the case.
After that, he would open the safe, steal thousands of dollars in cash from receipt pouches, return the pouches to the safe, and reconnect the ethernet cables.
Bobzin would then deposit the stolen money into his own bank accounts. Between 2016 and 2023, Bobzin, with the help of his former spouse, made 287 cash deposits of the stolen money from Hoffman’s into his own bank accounts, according to his charges.
In total, he deposited $1,901,250, along with seven cash purchases of cashier’s checks worth $161,330.
Deposits Slightly Below $10,000 Threshold
In October 2022, the U. S. Attorney’s Office notified Bobzin that “he was conducting cash transactions in amounts below $10,000 in a manner indicative of structuring to avoid having his bank file Currency Transaction Reports.”
The requirement to report cash deposits in amounts of over $10,000 is federal law and intended to prevent crimes like money laundering and tax evasion. Often, criminals make several smaller transactions of under $10,000, so the banks aren’t required to flag the transactions to the feds.
Instead of complying with authorities, Bobzin switched banks and resumed his irregular deposit patterns, say prosecutors.
Tax Crimes
Bobzin failed to report the stolen income on his federal personal income tax returns for the 2016 through 2022 tax years, resulting in a loss to the IRS of $436,178. For example, on his income tax return for the 2020 tax year, Bobzin reported a taxable income of $9,914 and a tax owed of $0. The return omitted income of approximately $432,615 and understated tax due and owing by approximately $110,530.
No Credit Cards Allowed
After serving his time in jail, Bobzin will have to spend an additional three years under supervised conditions, with one special condition stated in his judgment, in which he is ordered not to “incur new credit card charges above $500 or open additional lines of credit without the approval of the probation officer.”
The judgment also forbids him from “adding any new names to any lines of credit” and from being “added as a secondary card holder on another’s line of credit.”
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