Man charged with stealing $266k
A man arrested in August for allegedly stealing over $266,000 from a local business over a period of six years was recently indicted, officials said.
James Harold Moody, 49, 215 Frederick St., Bear Creek, was indicted for first-degree theft of property, Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing said.
Reports show that Moody had apparently been embezzling money from Franklin Homes, where he worked as the comptroller, since 2006.
Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver said as comptroller, Moody had been in charge of the company’s finances for a period of 10 years.
Oliver said company officials had been unaware of any embezzlement that had taken place until an assistant was hired to help Moody with the company’s finances in 2011.
Oliver said in November of 2011, the assistant discovered a discrepancy between the company’s financial ledger and the checks that were written from the company’s accounts.
Oliver said Moody was allegedly writing himself extra payroll checks and making checks payable to himself that he did not list in the company’s financial ledger.
“When the discovery was first made, company officials said they terminated Mr. Moody immediately and tried to work with him on their own to get him to repay the funds,” Oliver said at the time of Moody’s arrest.
“However, when he failed to follow through with what they had agreed on, the company officials alerted authorities and we began our investigation.”
Oliver said the sheriff’s office investigation started earlier during the third week in August.
He said when his office was made aware of the accusations, investigators went to Moody’s residence and arrested him following questioning.
“The company gave him plenty of time to try to work with them, but when he didn’t take advantage of the offer, company officials knew they had to turn it over to authorities, especially since it was such a large amount of money that turned up missing,” Oliver said.
“This is just a sad situation. This man worked for the company for 20 years, and it’s a shame someone who has worked for the company so long would do something like this.”
Moody was released from custody on a property bond.
Rushing said Moody is scheduled for arraignment on Jan. 10 and his case should be set for the February criminal trial docket.
