EX-CFO pleads guilty to embezzling $900K

A former chief financial officer at a construction equipment supplier in Connecticut has pleaded guilty to a federal charge stemming from a scheme he used to embezzle nearly $900,000.

Charles Ameer, 64, of Weston pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud during a hearing Thursday in federal court in Bridgeport, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.

He is free on $500,000 bond while he awaits sentencing on June 20, when he will face a maximum of 20 years in prison, federal officials said.

According to officials, from 2017 through 2022, Ameer was the CFO at Indeco North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Milford-based Indeco Ind. S.P.A. He was also the treasurer of the Weston Soccer Club from 2014 until February 2018.

Beginning in 2016, federal officials said Ameer misappropriated at least $38,500 from the soccer club and used the funds for personal expenses. Then in October 2017, he created a $40,000 check that was drafted on Indeco’s bank account and made payable to the order of the soccer club, using it to reimburse the club for the funds he had taken, officials said.

Federal authorities said Ameer later opened a line of credit at a bank in the soccer club’s name without permission and transferred funds into the club’s account “that he had stolen from to further conceal his theft.”

Between October 2018 and July 2022, Ameer created 14 additional checks, totaling $850,000, which were drafted on Indeco’s bank account and made payable to him. He deposited the checks into his personal bank account and used the funds for his own use.