A former Clovis accountant is heading to prison for stealing over $800,000 from a bank.
The big picture: Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced that Kenneth Gould, 69, was sentenced to one year in prison for the theft.
Driving the news: Gould was a CPA and operated a payroll services company in Clovis.
- From October 2017 through March 2018, Gould initiated several fraudulent electronic payments from one of his clients’ accounts to his payroll company’s account at the bank.
- The bank credited significant portions of the funds to Gould’s account while the payments were pending.
- Gould then withdrew those funds in cashier’s checks.
- The bank realized that there were insufficient funds to cover the payments and attempted to recover its money, but it was too late.
- Gould stole around $830,000 in total and gave the money to the client from whose account he initiated the fraudulent payments from as a loan, but the client gambled the money away.
