Missing Copier Led to Discovery of $14M, Says Biz

HOUSTON (CN) - When a copy machine went missing, an oil services company says, it hunted it down to a property owned by the son of one of its accountants. After firing her and sifting through her computer records, Davis-Lynch claims, it found that the family had embezzled more than $14 million.

In its federal complaint, Pearland-based Davis-Lynch claims accountant Nancy Moreno kept it all in the family. Davis-Lynch says Moreno was a "trusted employee" for 12 years, and handled accounts payable and accounts receivable. Moreno's daughter, daughter-in-law and an in-law from a previous marriage all worked under her supervision in accounting and helped her pull off the scheme, the company says. And it claims Moreno's mother "handled all of the investment of funds stolen from Davis-Lynch."

After a two-month investigation "Davis-Lynch discovered that the defendants, and possibly other accomplices, engaged in various schemes to embezzle millions of dollars and fraudulently transfer millions of dollars from the accounts of Davis-Lynch to fictitious businesses owned by the defendants," the company says.

They created fictitious vendor accounts in Davis-Lynch's accounting program by using vendors' names similar to those already in the system, according to the complaint.

"The defendants would file for assumed names similar to the approved vendor names and then open bank accounts using those names," the complaint states. "The defendants would then submit real invoices under the similar vendor names in order to obtain signatures on checks."

The company claims Moreno and her clan also forged signatures of Davis-Lynch officers to pay for invoices that had no supporting documentation.

Here is the list of Moreno's associates and relatives and their shell companies, all of them defendants: Jose Moreno individually and dba Hanna-Skye and Accurate, Ronnie Floyd, Ernest Trevino individually and dba Custom Products Company, A-Tex Roofing Company and Hunting Co., Yvette Ibarro Trevino, Noe Saldana individually and dba Eagle Transportation, Eagle Transmission, A&E Transportation, Line-X of Friendswood and Express Packaging, Brooke Davenport-Saldana individually and dba Strawberry Soup Children's Boutique, Bettye Durant Epperson, Alicia Saldana Pucek, Ronald Pucek, Hanna-Skye Inc., Monte Bello Ventures LLC, Amery Enterprises Inc., Saldana Custom Homes Inc., Saldana Investments LLC, Friendswood Waterscapes LLC and EJ's Sports Bar.

Davis-Lynch demands $14 million and exemplary and treble damages. It alleges RICO violations, theft, fraud, conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duty.

The company is represented by William Powell.

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