Ex-Clerk For RI Store Admitted To Paying Bills With Company Cash

PROVIDENCE, RI — A former clerk at a Rhode Island gift shop admitted in federal court Monday to stealing more than $300,000 from the business to pay his own bills.

Grant Devillez, 38, of Dayville, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of wire fraud.

Between February 2016 and July 2018, Devilliez defrauded Decor Craft, Inc. out of $302,000. He did this by misappropriating funds from Decor Craft's bank accounts and transferring the money to his personal bank accounts and to his creditors to pay bills. He also sent money to someone's bank account in Massachusetts.

Devillez admitted he was given access to the Decor Craft, Inc. bank account to make payments to vendors. He admitted that, instead of making those payments, he would either make a partial payment to the vendors, or no payment at all, and would transfer the rest to himself. Afterwards, he altered company records to reflect that full payment was made to vendors.

Devillez is scheduled to be sentenced on April 29. Wire fraud carries a potential 20-year prison sentence with three years of supervised release and a fine of twice the gross gain or loss.