MCA Called Target of Scheme : 3 Charged With Bilking $294,000

Ten felony charges of forgery, grand theft and perjury have been filed against a Van Nuys couple and an accomplice who allegedly bilked MCA Inc. of $294,000 last summer, authorities said.

Cynthia Zale, 31, an accounting office supervisor with the Universal City-based entertainment conglomerate, and her husband, Steven Zale, 30, who owns a Sherman Oaks jewelry store, were charged along with Jeff Dean Allison, 27, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Consiglio. The couple were arrested at their home last week. Police are still looking for Allison, Consiglio said.

Consiglio said the three are charged with stealing five checks written to firms with which MCA does business and with cashing the checks in the San Fernando Valley.

Cynthia Zale, who worked for the company 11 years, stole the checks written to the Los Angeles advertising firm of Doyle, Dane, Bernbach Inc., authorities said.

Checks Altered

After the advertising agency was paid and the cashed checks returned to the accounting office, Zale altered the checks’ invoice numbers and put new numbers into a computer listing unpaid bills, they said.

Consiglio said Zale then altered the name of the payee on the check slightly to make it look like that of an individual--Doyle, Dane, Bernbach Inc. becoming Doyle Dane Bernbach. New checks would be issued, and the money paid to an account held in the name of Doyle Dane Bernbach at a Sherman Oaks bank, authorities said. Allison, who identified himself as Bernbach through a false drivers’ license, would take the money from the account, authorities said.

“It was a simple but well-thought-out scheme,” Consiglio said.

A routine audit by MCA officials revealed that the money was missing, police said.

The couple are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Van Nuys.