A 65-year-old Libby woman has been given five years of probation and forced to pay more than $48,000 in restitution after admitting to not paying income taxes for two years.
Candace Hessel Cummings was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Missoula on May 16, more than three months after pleading guilty to tax evasion.
According to federal prosecutors, Cummings had been working as a financial caretaker for a person who was unable to take care of herself. Cummings was given power of attorney over the individual by Adult Protective Services in 2011 and was supposed to help keep track of the woman’s finances. But in 2012 and 2013, Cummings used the woman’s money for personal expenses and failed to report it as income on her taxes. Prosecutors said Cummings made more than $140,000 in 2012. Cummings also sold the individual’s savings bonds and then put the money into her own account.
In 2013, after a series of suspicious transactions, a local bank contacted Adult Protective Services and local law enforcement. Cummings’ power of attorney was quickly revoked and she was later charged in federal court.