Wellesley Executive Sentenced for Million-Dollar Embezzlement Scheme

WELLESLEY, MA - A Wellesley man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding a technology company in Cambridge of $1 million while working there as the controller.

Andy Kim, 44, faced two counts of wire fraud for embezzling $500,000 from the company in July 2014 and June 2015. He was fired from his position after 11 years when the theft was discovered last July.

According to the U.S. District Attorney's Office, Kim, who had access to the company's checking account, disguised the transfers as payments to the company's owner, falsified records to make the transactions appear legitimate and then filed those records as official company documents.

Both transfers were wired to a bank account belonging to a real estate investment firm in Massachusetts. After the 2014 transaction, the firm forwarded the money to Kim's personal bank account, while in 2015, the funds were invested in the real estate company on Kim's behalf.

Kim plead guilty to the charges in December; after 18 months in prison he will undergo a year of supervised release.