Mesa accountant steals $590K from clients

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that 37-year-old Gregory A. Peters received a 32-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to one count each of mail fraud, bank fraud and filing a false tax return for the year 2002.

Peters operated a bookkeeping and tax-return preparation company in Mesa and Scottsdale and prepared municipal and state sales tax returns for several clients.

Prosecutors say Peters filed returns that showed that little or no tax was owed and sometimes failed to file a return at all. They say Peters collected the sales tax amounts for himself in addition to receiving his accounting fee from his clients.