Embezzling on the rise in Lodi?

Embezzlement continues to plague Lodi region, but is preventable

Despite being a small town, Lodi has had a steady stream of embezzlement cases in recent years ranging from bookkeepers writing themselves checks to covering up personal use of company credit cards.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor has found that even with aggressive prosecution, the number of cases have not dwindled. He believes that one of the reasons Lodi businesses and organizations have become victims is due to the strong business climate as well as the temptation allowed by bookkeeping with no checks and balances.

“What’s driving embezzlement is not that they don’t like their employers, it’s just that they’ve lost control,” Taylor said about people who embezzle. “They’ve done it long enough with no supervision — it’s like alcoholism and they can’t stop.”

Moving through the courts just this month alone are Lodi cases including Oscar Picazo, a former Lodi Fire captain accused of embezzling $297,000 from the Lodi Professional Firefighters Union, and Juan Antonio Contreras, who has been charged with embezzling $198,347 from Odyssey Landscape Company and $50,670 from Odyssey Environmental Service Inc. — both related companies.

Contreras is accused of keeping terminated employees on the payroll and cashing their checks at small markets.

Those two are just the most recent cases.

Just last week, Deborah Veronica Adams was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for embezzling nearly $1 million from 3D Electrical Contractors Inc., while her sister Denise Roman awaits sentencing in March. The pair wrote checks to themselves and disguised them as vendor payments.

David William Dixon pleaded guilty in February 2016 to embezzling $694,503 from Rockdale Brothers LLC and Classic Cache L.P. and tax evasion.

In 2014, Sandra Salazar Malloy pleaded guilty to felony grand theft and embezzlement during her time working for Lodi dentist Gary Silva by taking money from patient payments through fraudulent refunds.

It was also not her first time taking money through an employer. She was convicted in 1994 of embezzling from Stockton dentist Glen Miller.

Every entity dealing with money, including businesses and nonprofit organizations, church associations and PTA groups, has the possibility to encounter embezzlement. In order to protect themselves, owners and leaders need to keep a closer eye on their books, according to Taylor.

He suggests that locals attend local bookkeeping classes through universities such as the University of the Pacific to better understand what good accounting should look like.

“Most of our victims are not experienced or comfortable with accounting,” Taylor said.

Business owners can also make sure that they are in control of their mail, that they take a look at canceled checks and get insurance to protect the business in case the bookkeeper or other employees dip their hands into company funds.

Auditing is another important step to protect against embezzlement, even if you think your bookkeeper is a good person and “wouldn’t do that,” Taylor said.

Since many embezzlement cases have been caught by the spouses of business owners, Taylor also suggests having a spouse or even a teenager — someone who isn’t connected with the bookkeeper — to take a look at the numbers and find anything that stands out.

“It has to be someone who is reasonably intelligent, extremely curious and doesn’t extremely like the bookkeeper in any way. They can see things that don’t look right,” he said.

Taylor recalls hearing the story of one victim’s girlfriend who was able to notice something was wrong right away after taking a look at the books.

Some red flags include accounting tricks such as looking at the ratios of cash bank deposits to check deposits, and even the ratio between things like toilet paper to total expenses. One embezzlement victim he encountered had found expenses for toilet paper that were unusual, but was unaware of how much toilet paper was being purchased. It was there that the stolen money was being hidden.

If caught early, recovering from embezzlement will be much easier.

“The difference between a large embezzlement and a small embezzlement depends on how long it went on,” Taylor said.