Florida Accountant Accused of $450,000 Embezzlement

A Boynton Beach, Florida accountant embezzled more than $450,000 from a senior-care business by printing fraudulent checks to himself, police alleged in arresting him on a grand theft charge Friday.

James Patrick Carlson took the money from Nautilius Senior Home Care by writing more than 250 fake checks over the course “at least four years,” according to Carlson’ arrest report.

Carlson, 39, is free on $30,000 bond, jail records show. An attempt to reach him through a telephone number listed on his arrest report was unsuccessful.

Nautilius, based on Southwest 23rd Avenue near Bethesda Hospital East, places aides with older people who have medical needs. An office manager told police he fired Carlson on Dec. 11 after learning he had been manipulating the company’s QuickBooks account to cut himself fraudulent checks, the arrest report said.

Police say Carlson would begin to write a legitimate check to a vendor or caregiver. He would save the check in the program, close it, reopen it and then change the payee information to himself. Then he’d print the version with his name on it, according to the report.

Once Carlson had printed the check, he would cancel the changes instead of saving them, and the check would switch back to the original payee name.

Company records show Carlson printed checks totaling $453, 285. Many of the names Carlson used in the QuickBooks system were either fake names or those of people Nautilius no longer employed.

Authorities subpoenaed Carlson’s bank records, confirming the deposits of all the fraudulent checks into his personal and business accounts. Police obtained Carlson’s federal W-2 form as well as his legitimate paychecks to compare them to the fraudulent payments, the report said.

adelgado@pbdailynews.com

@litadriana

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Accounting