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Separate schemes said to have netted $250,000OGDEN, Jul 23, 2009 (Standard-Examiner - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A former employee and a business associate of Big D Construction are accused of stealing more than $250,000 from the company. Bart Andersen, 39, of Hooper, and Kent Bruce McKenzie, 43, of Syracuse, are charged with communications fraud and multiple counts of theft by deception. Both made an initial appearance in 2nd District Court on Wednesday. Andersen is accused of orchestrating two schemes netting more than $250,000 from the company from May 2007 to December 2008, Weber County Prosecutor Dee Smith said. Smith said Andersen carried out the offenses while he was employed at Big D and that McKenzie worked for a company that does business with Big D, one of Utah's largest construction companies, founded in Ogden in 1967. Smith said McKenzie is charged only with being involved in one of the two schemes, which netted the two around $130,000. That second scheme is alleged to have started in June 2008. Prosecutors declined on Wednesday to talk about any details of how the money was stolen or how it was discovered by the company. Smith did say that the charges against the men indicate they used their positions to deceive. "In general terms, theft by deception means a person commits an act as though what they're doing is legitimate," Smith said. "They were deceptive in the way they handled themselves." Smith said Big D officials brought the accounting discrepancies directly to the Weber County Attorney's Office, which launched an investigation. The two men were served a summons to appear in court and were booked and released from Weber County Jail. They were arraigned Wednesday before 2nd District Judge W. Brent West, who set a status conference for Aug. 5. Forrest McNabb, Big D's senior vice president, described the embezzlement as "my worst nightmare come true. We empower and entrust our employees. It's our company's culture. We're not going to change the way we treat our employees because of what has happened." McNabb wouldn't describe the workings of the frauds, except to say that they were uncovered by the company's internal investigation, at the end of which Andersen was fired. He had been suspended at the start of the internal problem. Andersen was a senior project manager for Big D, meaning he was both an on-site and corporate overseer of a building project, McNabb said. McKenzie worked for a paving subcontractor Big D used often, he said. "It was money that came off the bottom line, Big D's money," McNabb said of the lost funds. "It didn't affect any of our customers." "We had our eyes wide open," he said as to why the embezzlement went undetected for almost two years. "You just trust people, especially long-term employees." McNabb added, "We've received partial restitution already." He said he'd been advised the criminal investigation was continuing but that no other Big D employees are suspects. Andersen is charged with two counts of communications fraud and four counts of theft by deception for violations court records listed as dating back to May 16, 2007. McKenzie is charged with one count of communications fraud and two counts of theft by deception dating back to June 7, 2008. All the counts against both men are second-degree felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Attempts to reach Andersen and McKenzie and their lawyers by phone were not successful. To see more of the Standard-Examiner, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.standard.net. Copyright (c) 2009, Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |