Murder and Fraud at the Beach

Now in jail because of an attempted murder for hire plot, Robert West is facing charges of the bilking the government.

Robert A. West, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud and agreed to continue cooperating with the long-running Internal Revenue Service investigation of fraud in Northeast Florida's construction industry. He faces a maximum five-year sentence, though prosecutors agreed to ask for a lower sentence in his plea agreement.

Mr. West is all ready in jail for hiring a hit man to kill a workers compensation investigator by having a hit man feed the investigator's body to the alligators.

Mr. West is a Neptune Beach, FL accountant who admitted that he cashed $4 million in checks during a wide ranging scheme to defraud the government. Neptune Beach is a small beach town located on Florida's First Coast and just outside of Jacksonville, FL.

West is the seventh person to plead guilty in this seven year conspiracy investigation surrounding the Northeast Florida building and construction industry.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scotland Morris said the conspiracy revolved around contractors who hired illegal aliens to frame houses but claimed the work was done by framing subcontractors. The subcontractors were actually sham companies that had no employees but were set up to cash checks from the framers, keep a fee and used the rest to pay the crew leaders in cash, Morris said.

Morris also said the scam cost the IRS about $2 million in payroll taxes from 1998 to 2002.

Mr. West is also facing possible deportation to his native Canada once his sentencing is concluded.

Read more at jacksonville.com