BVS embezzlment case
Former employee suspected in BVS embezzlment case
By: Tina Forde
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Anonymous user Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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A quiet investigation triggered by an internal audit has uncovered the alleged embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars from Bear Valley Association funds, according to Bear Valley Police Department.
The police said a former employee of the homeowners’ organization is under scrutiny in connection with the case.
The police department has turned to case over to the District Attorney Major Fraud Division.
The case, which remains under investigation, “on July 16 was submitted in early forms to the District Attorney,” said Sgt. Dave Watts, detective at the Bear Valley Police Department.
“We have been working on it for a little while,” Watts said. “We are waiting for the DA to file.”
Kern County Deputy District Attorney Mike Hayward, in charge of major fraud investigations, said the Bear Valley Police Department had submitted papers pertaining to the investigation.
“We’re working on the case right now,” Hayward said. “Nothing has been filed yet. I can’t talk about it. Until we file a case we can’t arrest somebody.”
The identity of the suspect has not been released and his or her whereabouts apparently is a mystery.
Authorities say the suspect acted alone.
Michael Bennett, the association’s general manager, confirmed that an investigation is ongoing and “Law enforcement asked us not to make any comments until they issue a warrant... As soon as they say ‘go,’ we will release a new statement.”
The association hopes to go to court with the complex case, Bennett said, where “the details will be made painfully public.”
The association of homeowners at the upscale, 25,000-acre development that includes a country club and golf course, equestrian facilities and lakes, may have been hit with a loss “in excess of a quarter of a million dollars,” according to John Yeakley, general manager of the Bear Valley Community Services District. He made the statement in his August 2008 column in the Bear Valley Springs Bear Tracks, a monthly publication of the Bear Valley Springs Association and the Bear Valley Community ServicesDistrict.
The alleged employee theft, Yeakley wrote, was disclosed at the July general meeting of the association board.
In anofficial statement, Sgt. Watts said, “On July 16, 2008, the Bear Valley Police Department submitted charges of embezzlement to the Kern County District Attorney Major Fraud Division against a former employee of the Bear Valley Springs Association. The investigation is ongoing. The loss has been determined to be in the hundred of thousands of dollars. The thefts occurred over a two-year period and went undetected until uncovered during an internal audit. It This point, all evidence indicates that the identified suspect, whose whereabouts are unknown, acted alone.”
Hayward, the deputy district attorney, said the incidence of major fraud in Kern County has risen recently with the housing market “belly up.”
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