Ex-Employee Draws 4 Years for Defrauding Brewery of $150,00

A former Anheuser-Busch employee who admitted helping defraud the company of more than $150,000 has been sentenced to four years in state prison.

Allen Olson, 41, a former buyer for the Van Nuys division of the beer company, admitted last November that he used a phony purchasing scheme to bilk the company of $165,371.07 between May, 1979, and September, 1982. Olson and his partner in the scheme, Stephen M. Garrett, 25, of Tarzana, pleaded guilty to two counts of grand theft last fall.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy Moss said that Olson, a resident of Canyon Country, repeatedly funneled money earmarked for the purchase of conveyor-belt parts into a dummy firm set up by Garrett. The parts were never delivered, she said.

Garrett is vice president of a Van Nuys company called Garrett Fluid Components, which was not involved in the scheme. He was accused of diverting the funds into the non-existent company, which had his home address, Moss said.

Moss said the thefts were discovered in a routine check of company records. Al Albergate, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said the money was never recovered.

The sentence was imposed Tuesday by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer. Albergate said Olson is being held in a prison system processing facility in Chino.

Garrett will be sentenced March 27, Moss said.