St. Paul household enterprise’s new CFO accused of embezzling $187K

A former CFO is accused of embezzling almost $200,000 from a longtime, family-owned St. Paul enterprise.

Ramsey County prosecutors charged Ryan Charles Gordon, 28, of St. Paul just lately charged with three counts of theft by swindle.

Schneider Carpet One Ground & Dwelling, which was began in 1935 by the present proprietor’s grandfather, skilled an worker theft on the St. Paul police reported. The West Seventh Road and Armstrong Avenue enterprise stated it employed Gordon to function chief monetary officer in August 2022. The previous CFO, who labored for the corporate for about 38 years, educated Gordon earlier than he retired.

In August, an accountant from Schneider Carpet One referred to as the proprietor to report that Gordon was not offering the paperwork wanted to arrange state and federal tax returns and make the related funds for the enterprise, and raised the likelihood that Gordon steals funds from. the corporate, in line with a legal criticism.

The proprietor seen Gordon’s work and located “questionable funds from the enterprise to unknown bank card accounts together with unauthorized wage will increase and lacking funds,” the criticism states. He discovered that Gordon appeared to have opened 4 bank cards; transaction information “confirmed Gordon making funds from the enterprise checking account to bank cards in his identify, together with funds on his scholar mortgage, one other mortgage in his identify, and for his property taxes, amongst different funds and transactions,” the criticism continued.

The corporate terminated Gordon’s employment and employed an unbiased monetary controller and an IT firm to investigate the onerous drive of Gordon’s enterprise pc.

A deleted file was recovered, which presupposed to be a promissory be aware created on August 26, inside days of the accountant alerting the proprietor. It included statements about Gordon making funds of $200 per week from his payroll examine to start on July 18, 2024 and proceed till a steadiness of $187,317.83 was paid.

Schneider Carpet One requested Gordon if he might usher in a examine to cowl the enterprise funds he used to pay his private bills. “Gordon responded by stating that he didn’t have something near the sum of money required,” the criticism states; Investigations confirmed he saved greater than $135,000 in a brokerage account and one other $12,000 in one other account.

Investigators discovered Gordon was promoting a home in Neillsville, Wisconsin, about 140 miles east of his St. Paul tackle on the market. The acquisition worth was $269,900 and the cut-off date “was quickly approaching when uncovered as a part of the investigations,” the criticism states. Gordon deliberate to carry $120,000 to the closing and finance the remainder.