Por Neal Putnam<\/p>\n
The former bookkeeper for a Downtown lighting company was sentenced June 7 to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay $227,543 for embezzlement.<\/p>\n
Arthur Jason Morales, also known as AJ Morales, 42, worked for Hyperikon, Inc., which is located on Broadway and was founded in 2011.<\/p>\n
The company has 24 employees and its headquarters were downtown. Morales\u2019 scheme began in 2015 and it ended in March, 2016 when Hyperikon discovered Morales wrote a check for $16,274 to himself and cashed it.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns also ordered him to pay $50,000 to the company\u2019s insurance firm. Morales pleaded guilty to wire fraud and 26 other theft related charges were dismissed.<\/p>\n
Morales was remanded into custody and it is expected he will be transferred to a Nevada correctional facility, according to court records. He had been free on $30,000 bond.<\/p>\n
Morales wrote 28 checks to himself from the lighting company\u2019s bank account, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office. He was being paid $8,000 a month for bookkeeping services which a prosecutor wrote was a high salary, but it didn\u2019t stop Morales from stealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact of fraud on small businesses can be devastating,\u201d said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman. \u201cThis defendant abused his position of trust to enrich himself, and he has been held to account for his crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAccountants stealing money from an employer\u2019s coffers is the ultimate violation of fiduciary trust and can be a violation of federal law,\u201d said FBI special agent Suzanne Turner. \u201cIn this case, the FBI investigation revealed Arthur Morales fraudulently wired money to his personal bank account in regular increments over seven months.\u201d<\/p>\n
A prosecutor filed documents that said Morales once stole $60,000 from another company in 2014 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail in another state.<\/p>\n
The federal probation department recommended two years in prison. His attorney asked for one year of house arrest.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Neal Putnam es un reportero judicial local.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Neal Putnam The former bookkeeper for a Downtown lighting company was sentenced June 7 to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay $227,543 for embezzlement. Arthur Jason Morales, also known as AJ Morales, 42, worked for Hyperikon, Inc., which is located on Broadway and was founded in 2011. The company has 24 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1266,"featured_media":242377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Bookkeeper sentenced in fraud case","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}