VALENCIA : Couple Charged in $2.8-Million Embezzlement
Criminal charges have been filed against a married couple who allegedly masterminded the largest embezzlement from an escrow company in state history, authorities said Thursday.
Harold Louis Wiener, 51, and his wife Kathy, 47, are accused of stealing about $2.8 million from customers at Country Oaks Escrow between 1990 and 1993, according to a complaint filed Monday by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
The Valencia-based company, founded and owned by the Wieners, was seized by state auditors in 1993.
The Wieners, who moved from Santa Clarita to Utah after the seizure, are expected to surrender to sheriff’s deputies and be arraigned here next Thursday, said Harold Wiener’s attorney, Melvyn Sacks.
Sacks said bail for each has been set at $2.7 million.
The Wieners have denied any wrongdoing. Sacks said his client, who underwent a heart transplant in 1990, will plead not guilty to the criminal charges of grand theft, unauthorized disbursement of escrow funds and misstatements pertaining to escrow funds.
The Wieners each face up to 21 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.
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