Ravenna man accused of defrauding Streetsboro company of more than $1 million
A Ravenna man is facing federal charges alleging that he defrauded his employer, Geis Companies of Streetsboro, out of more than $1 million, filed false income tax returns and laundered money.
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Charges against Michael Harman, 45, were filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, according to court records. Charges include wire fraud, money laundering and four counts of making and subscribing false tax returns.
"Mr. Harmon has demonstrated his acceptance of responsibility and he's taking steps to be accountable and he wants to move past this and also everyone who's affected by this will get them moving past this as well," said Eric Long, an attorney representing Harman. "So he's accepted responsibility and we look forward to discussing with the court his positive qualities and also the contributions he's made to the community."
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According to court filings, Harman is a certified public accountant who held a position of controller with a business identified only as "company-1," a commercial construction, architectural and property management firm based in Streetsboro. Long said Harman is no longer employed at the business, which he declined to identify.
Maura Maresh, general counsel with Geis Companies in Streetsboro, confirmed Thursday morning that Harman worked for the company. A request for comment from Geis made through Maresh did not receive an immediate response.
According to court filings, from 2016 to August 2020, Harman allegedly made a little over $1 million in unauthorized charges on company credit cards to pay personal expenses, wired nearly $40,000 from a company bank account to make child support payments in New York and used checks to pay $11,500 in additional child support payments. He also is accused of making a wire transfer for more than $12,000 out of the account to pay personal moving expenses.
Harman also allegedly set up an account with an unidentified California company that provides payment processing services, with the intention of hiding the true source of payments made to various recipients and used a credit card belonging to his employer to pay more than $25,000 to a bank account belonging to the California firm.
At around the same time, in August 2020, Harman allegedly arranged to have nearly $30,000 wired from the California company's bank account to an unspecified business Harman controlled, an act resulting in the money laundering charge, according to court filings.
Harman is also accused of filing federal income tax returns that "substantially" underreported income earned from 2016 through 2019.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna man accused taking $1M from Streetsboro company
