A retired California CPA has been indicted for allegedly stealing more than $1 million through a payroll scheme. Kenneth Gould of Clovis Calif., was indicted last month, alleging he used a payroll company he operated to steal money via $20 million in fraudulent ACH payments.
Gould, who operated Paytech Payroll System, was indicted on bank fraud charges alleging that from October 2017 through March 2018, he made more than 90 ACH payments totaling $20 million from a client’s accounts to his payroll company’s account at the same bank.
The bank credited the payments before realizing there were insufficient funds to cover the payments. It then denied the transactions and attempted to recover its money. However, more than $1 million was gone because Gould withdrew the money via cash, cashier’s checks, and online transfers to accounts to which he had access.
While the bank made repeated demands for payment, Gould never honored several promises to repay the funds.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind