Accountant charged with embezzling $1.5M from large family-owned Prosser farm
An accountant who enthusiastically praised his employer as “great” in a now-deleted LinkedIn post has been charged with embezzling up to $1.5 million by regularly writing fraudulent checks to himself for six years.
Nathan Daniel Price, 33, of Prosser, is in custody at the Benton County jail after being arrested Nov. 13.
He is charged with one count each of first-degree theft and first-degree forgery for allegedly issuing fraudulent checks to himself on the accounts of Sunheaven Farms.
The 25,000-acre family-owned farm in the Horse Heaven Hills above Prosser raises onions, wheat, corn and other row crops on its irrigated acreage.
He’s pleaded innocent in Benton County Superior Court and his trial is set for Jan. 16.
6-year scheme
Price, who was responsible for paying the farm’s vendors, is accused of writing and cashing fraudulent checks for about $4,600 each almost as soon as he began working for Sunheaven Farms in 2017, according to court documents.
Price reportedly admitted the fraud to Benton County sheriff’s investigators. Court documents indicate he told officers he was struggling with a drug addiction and that the money was mostly or entirely gone.
The fraud was discovered by a new attorney for Sunheaven when she attempted to reconcile checks paid to vendors against invoices.
Sunheaven’s accounting system requires an invoice be entered every time a vendor bills the company. The attorney found checks were being issued to alleged vendors without invoices.
She investigated a Nov. 3, 2023, entry indicating that $4,598 was paid to a local irrigation company with no corresponding invoice. She confirmed that the check had been issued in that amount, but not to the irrigation vendor named in the accounting system.
It had been made out to Nathan Price at an address known to belong to him, show the charging documents.
‘Large number’ of payments
Video showed Price cashing the check the same day at a HAPO Credit Union branch in Kennewick, court documents say.
Sunheaven Farms discovered a “large number” of payments to vendors that didn’t have invoices, totaling $1 million to $1.5 million, according to a probable cause statement. The exact amount is under investigation.
Sunheaven’s tracking software showed the Price’s account corresponded to the checks issued to him. Additional video from HAPO and Moneytree showed Price cashing checks linked to fraudulent activity on its system, documents say.
When contacted by the sheriff’s department, Price was reportedly cooperative and ultimately admitted he issued frequent checks to himself for amounts comparable to the Nov. 3 check.
High praise
Price was enthusiastic in his praise for Sunheaven as an employer in a post to his LinkedIn page, which indicated he went from payroll clerk to financial analyst in the first 11 months on the job.
The post was removed on Dec. 11, shortly after the Tri-City Herald viewed it.
“Anyone interested in working for such a great company, I would highly recommend this company because they believe in giving hard working people the chance to grow and take on new challenges,” he wrote.
Sunheaven Farms referred questions to Benton County prosecutors.
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