Ryan Wall Imprisoned For $1.2 Million Fraud

The United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Ryan Wall, 42, a former Quechee resident who now lives in Florida, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Rutland to 51 months of imprisonment following his guilty plea to a charge of wire fraud.  Chief Judge Geoffrey Crawford also ordered that Wall serve a two-year term of supervised release following completion of his prison sentence.  He also entered a preliminary order that Wall pay $470,000 in restitution to 18 victims; that order is subject to modification if additional victims file claims.  The court ordered that Wall surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on September 8 to begin serving his sentence. 

In March 2019, a federal grand jury in Rutland returned a two-count indictment charging Wall with wire fraud and possessing firearms as an unlawful user of narcotics.  Wall pleaded guilty to the wire fraud charge last December.  According to the indictment and court records, TSBS, LLC was a company that offered tax preparation and payroll processing services.  Wall was the sole employee of TSBS Payroll, the payroll processing subsidiary of TSBS, LLC.  TSBS Payroll provided services to about 35 individuals, business and non-profit organizations in Vermont and New Hampshire in the Upper Connecticut River valley.  On a weekly or biweekly basis, TSBS Payroll received funds from its clients that were to be used to prepare payroll checks for the clients’ employees, and tax withholdings that were to be paid over to federal and state taxing authorities.

Beginning no later than March 2012 and continuing until September 2018, Wall misappropriated portions of the funds that had been entrusted to TSBS Payroll for tax withholding purposes.  He committed this fraud by issuing TSBS Payroll checks to himself and then either cashing the checks or depositing them into a personal bank account.  He also issued hundreds of checks to a third party, who helped Wall obtain illegal prescription opiates, heroin and crack cocaine.  Most of the money Wall stole was used to buy drugs.  The total loss to victims was approximately $1.2 million.  As a result of this fraud, a number of victims suffered extreme financial hardship, including bankruptcy, loss of businesses and postponed retirements. 

Wall is represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender David McColgin.  The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.

The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice.  Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150years.