Bookkeeper embezzles $1M from NC tree nursery, buys home theater and truck, feds say
HAYLEY FOWLER, 04 June 2021
A longtime bookkeeper and office manager at a family-owned tree nursery in North Carolina has pleaded guilty to stealing upwards of $1 million from his employer over six years, according to the federal government.
The money went toward outfitting a home theater, buying a new truck and paying off his mortgage, prosecutors said.
Richard Allen Clark, 55, pleaded guilty to mail fraud, money laundering and making a false statement on his tax return, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said Thursday in a news release. Clark is from Lenoir, about 86 miles northwest of Charlotte in the foothills.
A defense attorney representing Clark told McClatchy News in a statement Friday that his client is “a family man who has led a life of hard work and made meaningful contributions to his community.”
“All of us make mistakes of varying magnitudes. Yesterday in federal court, Mr. Clark accepted full responsibility for this one,” attorney William R. Terpening said. “He looks forward to continuing to actively cooperate with the government and to making restitution, and expresses regret and apologies. He looks forward to providing the court with context for his actions and their circumstances, and to sharing some of his side of this story, at the forthcoming sentencing hearing.”
