The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
A man who embezzled millions of dollars from Norfolk game company Decipher Inc. could learn Monday what he will pay for his crimes.
Rick Eddleman, 49, pleaded guilty in March to 12 counts of embezzlement. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he faces a maximum of 12 years in prison. Sentencing originally was scheduled for Thursday afternoon but has been postponed until Monday.
Eddleman stole the money while he served as vice president of finances for the company, which was founded by his brother-in-law, Warren Holland. The two men had known each other since boyhood, and Eddleman married Holland’s younger sister.
Prosecutors said the theft went on for about nine years, nearly Eddleman’s entire tenure with the company. The losses crippled Decipher, forcing Holland to reduce his staff from more than 100 to about seven.
In a summary of evidence submitted to the court, prosecutor Marc West said Eddleman paid himself double his salary. He wrote checks to himself as personal loans and convinced other staffers that he had paid back the money. Eddleman reviewed the company’s credit card statements, West wrote, enabling him to hide $530,000 of his own charges. The tally of stolen money for the criminal charges was about $1.5 million.
However, a judge who ruled last year on a lawsuit Decipher filed against Eddleman ordered him to pay $8.9 million.
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He needs a good room mate in prison
This gentleman needs to go into a cell with a very friendly room mate. In otherwords they need to make an example of this guy. He not only cost the company he worked for a lot of money but many people their livelihoods. I have very little tolerance for white collar crimes. They are normally people who make more than enough money to live but get greety.
Wait a minute...
Wait a minute...the tally for the criminal charge was 1.5 million but the judge orders him to pay 8.9 million? And there is no mention of the reason why? Nor is any question raised?
This is a prime example of how ineffective, inept or simply negligent the reporting is here.
Voiceofreason reply
I think that this was the cover story. There was another article printed on 7/23/09 that covered this topic in depth. The $8.9M restitution is for damages inflicted by the theft. This this unfortunate family's business almost went under. So they had to layoff staff, which probably hurt their output/supply, and thus effected revenue. Let alone the legal bills.
This fraud spells out the need for segregation of duties in the work environment. No matter how much you trust the person, even family.
Think about it this way; if you design good controls, then you will likely not put the pressure of theft on them. I'm sure the stress of doing such dis-respectable act is burdening. An extreme view would say "if you loved your family you wouldn't do such things". A more logical view says that you can simply not afford to have this lack of controls in place.
With segregation of duties you in effect have removed their opportunity. It may seems like a lot to do, but it can really save in the long run. In this case it may have kept a family together.