Clovis accountant accused of stealing over $1M from bank. Here’s how he allegedly did it
A Clovis accountant has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of larceny for allegedly stealing more than $1 million from a federally-insured financial institution.
Kenneth Gould, 65, who owned and operated Paytech Payroll Systems, is accused of initiating more than 90 fraudulent automated clearing house payments totaling more than $20 million from one of his clients’ accounts to his payroll company’s account at a Wells Fargo Bank, according to a news release from acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert.
An automated clearing house payment is a type of electronic funds transfer used to move money from one bank account to another account.
The fraudulent transfers took place from October 2017 through March 2018.
According to the indictment, an automated clearing house payment can take several days to clear, but for certain business customers including Paytech Payroll, Wells Fargo would credit all or a substantial portion of incoming payments to the receiving business’ account while the payment was pending.
The credited funds would then be available for the receiving business to withdraw before the payment cleared.
Federal prosecutors said that once the bank realized there were insufficient funds, it canceled further transfers and attempted to recover its money.
More than $1 million of the bank’s money, however, was gone because Gould allegedly withdrew the funds while the payments were pending, according to the release.
Gould withdrew the money in cash, cashier’s checks, and online transfers to other accounts to which he had access. The bank made several demands to Gould for repayment. He repeatedly promised to repay the funds but never did.
If convicted, Gould faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He will be arraigned on Oct. 14.
