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Sheriff reports Tahoe business victim of embezzlement

William Ferchland, Tahoe Daily Tribune

More than $20,000 was embezzled from a construction development business on Kingsbury Grade over a three-year span, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department said.

Kathryn Whitney, 39, was arrested on suspicion of felony embezzlement on Dec. 15, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department reported. She started work as a secretary for Gardner Enterprises, LLC, in 1996. After about two years of employment, she allegedly began taking money from the company by cashing checks under the appearance of depositing the money in a co-owner’s personal checking account, a sheriff’s report said.

In all, 29 checks were supposed to go into Richard Gardner Jr.’s personal checking account. Instead they allegedly were used by Whitney to pay bills and miscellaneous items, the report said. Since January 1999, $24,800 was embezzled from the company, the report said.



Whitney told deputies she took $20,000 to $30,000 in the past three or four years.

Sgt. Tim Minister said the amount is “pretty high” for embezzlement cases in Douglas County.



Whitney was first confronted about the missing money by Michael Dupree, a certified public accountant and co-owner of the business. At first, Dupree thought only $7,000 was embezzled by Whitney. Dupree found Whitney writing checks to herself from the business account of Gardner Enterprises, the report said.

An agreement was made by the two that Whitney would repay the money and be released from the company without Dupree’s contacting authorities.

Upon further investigation, however, Dupree found more than $7,000 was missing.

Kathryn Whitney could not be reached for comment before press time. She made the $25,000 bail, Sgt. Minister said. Reached at his office, Gardner would not comment.

WHat is business???


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