Local News in Brief : Funds Funneled From Insurer; Theft Charged

A Simi Valley man has been charged with forgery and grand theft in a scheme in which $837,156 was funneled from his employer to himself and two friends, authorities said Tuesday.

Richard Alan Farquar, 42, who worked for an insurance company, was charged Friday with 10 counts of forgery and one count of grand theft, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Youngdahl.

Farquar was being held without bail at the Van Nuys jail pending sentencing Aug. 29 for violating probation for a 1985 grand theft conviction.

Youngdahl said Farquar’s two friends, Pamela O’Weger, 38, of Saugus and Leonard Feller, 62, of Calabasas, also were charged with one count each of grand theft.

While working as a claims adjuster at Aetna Life & Casualty in Woodland Hills from April, 1987, to May of this year, Farquar wrote checks totaling $837,156 made out to phony names, Youngdahl said.

Youngdahl said Farquar then deposited checks totaling $754,156 in his own bank account and gave checks totaling $62,000 to O’Weger and $21,000 to Feller.

He said O’Weger and Feller were charged in the scheme because they deposited the checks in their bank accounts despite having no association with the insurance company.

Feller and O’Weger are expected to surrender at their arraignments, which will be scheduled later this month, Youngdahl said.

State Department of Insurance officials who investigated the thefts said Farquar turned over several properties and a Jaguar automobile to the insurance company, but as much as $300,000 was not recovered.

Farquar could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison and Feller and O’Weger each to a maximum of five years in prison.