Friday, Sep. 19, 2008

Bookkeeper charged with bilking boss for $250,000

For four years, authorities say, Shari Mong ripped off her elderly boss to the tune of more than $250,000.

Now, the former bookkeeper for Environmental Resources Inc., a Duette landscaping nursery, is facing more than 20 counts of fraud, theft and forgery, according to Manatee County Sheriff's Office reports.

Detectives say starting in December 2004 until she quit in August of this year, Mong stole more than $250,000 from Environmental Resources owner Otto Bundy.

Mong, 44, was arrested Thursday and was being held in the Manatee County jail on bonds totaling $280,000.

The thefts caused Bundy, 82, to dip into retirement funds and to lay off workers at his business. His company remains in peril, according to sheriff's reports.

Bundy said Thursday he did not want to discuss specifics of the case.

"All I can say is that I have worked hard all my life," he said.

Over the past four years, detectives say, Mong wrote company checks to herself and deposited them into her personal bank account. She also forged Bundy's signature on payroll documents giving her raises over the years, according to sheriff's reports.

Bundy had no knowledge of those raises, reports say.

In 2007 and 2008, Bundy had Mong on the payroll for $39,000 a year. But sheriff's reports say payroll records show she was paid $120,777.20 in 2007 and $73,630.64 so far this year.

Mong also forged more than $80,000 worth of company checks with Bundy's name and deposited them into her bank account, reports show. She also had Bundy's payroll company deposit a $5,000 bonus in her account by forging Bundy's signature, according to reports. Bundy later told detectives he never authorized the bonus.

As she funneled the company's money into her account, detectives say, Mong told Bundy his business was struggling.

Bundy told detectives he trusted Mong and pulled money from retirement funds to keep his business afloat, eventually laying off other employees.

It all began to unravel for Mong this year when the Florida Department of Revenue told Bundy he had not paid his sales tax for 2007, according to the sheriff's office.

He asked his accountant to the look at the books. The accountant found monthly sales tax payments to the state recorded in Bundy's ledgers, but the state had no record of the payments.

The accountant found the monthly payments supposedly made to the state were instead sent to a fictitious company, Turkey Creek Nursery, according to the sheriff's office.

Mong called one of Bundy's accountants Aug. 18, saying she quit. By then they had discovered the forgeries and the missing money, according to reports.

"I lied about paying the sales tax," she told the accountant, according to sheriff's reports.

Sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow called Mong's arrest a "substantial embezzlement case."

"These kind of things can add up to six figures pretty quick," he said. "Usually, it takes an accountant to say. 'Whoa. what is going on here?' "

On Thursday, detectives arrested Mong on charges of scheme to defraud, passing a forged document, criminal use of personal identification and 17 counts of passing forged checks.

It is not the first time Mong has been accused of writing bad checks. She was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 18 months probation for forging and writing bad checks, according to Manatee court records.

Meanwhile, Bundy told sheriff's detectives that the future status of his business "is unknown due to her actions."