A Highlands Ranch man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to mail fraud in connection with a scheme to embezzle more than $500,000 from his employer.
Keith Alan Franz, 60, entered the plea before U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Colorado media release.
Franz, who is free on bond, was charged on Jan. 22 in the case. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Jackson on July 13.
From 2008 until June 2014, Franz was the Director of Tax with Pendum LLC, an automated cash (ATM) equipment company.
Franz diverted $530,985 in tax refund checks sent to his employer into bogus accounts he had set up and exclusively controlled, the release said.
Mail fraud carries a penalty of not more than 20 years imprisonment, and up to a $250,000 fine, per count.
The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or @kierannicholson
