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A former manager for Century Theatres in San Rafael was arraigned Thursday on charges he embezzled nearly $116,000 that was supposed to be given to management trainees for per diem expenses, authorities said.

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Former Theatre Manager Charged with Embezzling nearly $116,000

I somehow doubt that he did much to support Film Done Right.
 

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Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 04-07-2007, 12:39 AM:
 
The whole article is below.

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Former theater manager charged with embezzling nearly $116,000

Gary Klien
Article Launched: 04/05/2007 11:32:15 PM PDT

A former manager for Century Theatres in San Rafael was arraigned Thursday on charges he embezzled nearly $116,000 that was supposed to be given to management trainees for per diem expenses, authorities said.

Christopher O'Kelley, a 35-year-old Napa resident, is accused of stealing the money from September 2002 through April 2005, when he was in charge of the movie house chain's training program for general managers, according to court documents.

Management trainees in the program were often relocated to different areas to learn new job functions. During these relocations, O'Kelley was supposed to pay the trainees a weekly per diem of $175 for food, plus reimbursements for some out-of-pocket expenses.

O'Kelley kept a "large sum" of petty cash in his office at Century's San Rafael headquarters to pay the trainees' expenses, police said. The trainees submitted receipts to O'Kelley for reimbursement.

Officials at Century Theatres contacted the San Rafael Police Department in May 2005 after conducting an internal audit of the management training program. According to a court affidavit, Century officials said they discovered that O'Kelley had been skimming money for years by several means, including:

- Charging Century for the trainees' food allowances but giving the trainees less than the full amount they were entitled to.

- Submitting false per diem reimbursements for money that had not been paid to the trainees.

- Submitting reimbursement statements for nonexistent expenses.

- Cashing reimbursement checks that were intended for trainees and keeping some or all of the money;

- Submitting duplicate reimbursement reports for the same items;

- Filing reimbursement reports for employees who were not in the training program.

Trainees told Century investigators they were afraid to question O'Kelley about the money they were owed because he was their boss.

After interviews with Century officials and trainees, police interviewed O'Kelley last year at the San Rafael Police Department. O'Kelley admitted he "mishandled" company funds but said he thought the amount was less than $10,000, according to an affidavit filed by Deputy District Attorney Linda Witong.

Century calculated the suspected losses to be $115,974.36.

O'Kelley told police he needed money because he had bought a third residence in Napa and his finances were tight, Witong said. O'Kelley also said he had stocked and opened a sports memorabilia store, but the business failed.

In October 2006, San Rafael police referred the case to the Marin County district attorney's office for prosecution. The district attorney's office filed an embezzlement charge on Oct. 31, but O'Kelley failed to appear for an arraignment. Authorities obtained an arrest warrant, and O'Kelley was taken into custody on Saturday.

O'Kelley, contacted at the Marin County Jail on Thursday night, declined to comment on the case. He was scheduled to enter a plea Friday in Marin Superior Court.

His bail is set at $115,000.

Century Theatres was sold last summer to Cinemark USA, a movie theater chain based in Plano, Texas.

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 04-07-2007, 01:15 AM:
 
Adam, even though I think you're a brute, congrats on your hard work in helping nab that POS thief.

I think your job is necessary and goes mostly without your due recognition.

Again, congrats!
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-07-2007, 02:39 AM:
 
Actually Phil, I think it was Adam and Scott who caught that guy.
 

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Posted by Andrew Huffman (Member # 4140) on 04-07-2007, 12:03 PM:
 
The overwhelming fact is that this is a score for the good guys! Kudos to the guys who keep the playing field level for the guys who run an honest ship!
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-07-2007, 04:03 PM:
 
Great work guys! Lets hear your story about how it all went down...... , at least if you are able to share it with us at this time...

Mark
 

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Posted by Mike Pennell (Member # 1692) on 04-07-2007, 04:27 PM:
 
well what do you know its Andy!!!! Hey Big Dog, be seeing you soon
 

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Posted by Kara Tillotson (Member # 3899) on 04-07-2007, 07:06 PM:
 
Ive never been able to understand the whole embezzling thing, even if I ran my own theatre and owned it Id still feel bad taking money that was alloted for other things.....
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 04-07-2007, 07:44 PM:
 
Holy Sh*t!

This guy called me once to set up an interview when I lived out in Vegas.

It's a small world.
 

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Posted by Matt Kerekes (Member # 2777) on 04-07-2007, 11:27 PM:
 
This guy flew me up from Southern CA to Northern CA for an interview for the same training program in 2002. Glad I didn't get the job.
 

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Posted by Shane Cooper (Member # 2510) on 04-07-2007, 11:52 PM:
 
I was flown out by Chris from Chicago in 2003. I turned down the offer and I am glad I did! He seemed like an ass!
 

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Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 04-09-2007, 12:41 PM:
 
I don't know if there's too much I can say seeing as the case is still open.

I can say for sure though, that everybody who worked on this case is proud of the work that was done. For years we had suspected something was off, but it took a number of things falling into place to really zero in on the problems.

One thing was that in the last two years, Century had hired on a VP of Loss Prevention. He turned our department away from auditors who might find something, into investigators who would look at the locations with numbers that didn't add up or issues that didn't make sense. This allowed other parts of the company to come to us and point out things they always thought didn't add up in their scope of work.

I know one of the tip offs was a GM Trainee submitting a dinner receipt to a location that was being audited, and then another auditor (Adam I think) asking "Hey, don't you get reimbursed through the training program???" It's odd how simple this job can be at times... just figure out what doesn't make sense, and ask a lot of questions.

Anyway, thanks to everybody for their kind words. Most of the time Auditing / Loss Prevention is a thankless job. A lot of people think you're just out to get them in trouble. What the honest employees don't realize is that if they make the effort to follow the rules, the bad guys will stick out like a sore thumb. If the bad guys start getting picked off, then all the execs will have the time to focus on the positive instead of being negative all the time.
 

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Posted by Bernard Acero (Member # 3102) on 04-12-2007, 04:54 PM:
 
That....answered a lot of questions.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-13-2007, 01:15 AM:
 

quote: Scott D. Neff

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A lot of people think you're just out to get them in trouble.

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So, when you come right down to it, for every dollar the company loses to theft, TEN dollars come out of your paycheck!

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quote: Randy Stankey

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Just tell them this: For every dollar a company loses because of theft, they have to make an EXTRA DOLLAR'S profit to cover it.

SO... if somebody steals a hundred dollars today, you have to make TWO hundred to break even again.

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quote: Jack Ondracek

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However, stolen profits will always remain lost.

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