Former manager of KY beekeeping business charged in $700,000 fraud case

The former manager of a Frankfort business obtained nearly $700,000 through fraud by stealing customer payments, a federal grand jury has charged.

The grand jury indicted Jeremy Clay Guthrie on Thursday on eight charges of wire fraud and two charges of taking part in filing false tax returns that underreported more than $325,000 in income.

Guthrie was the manager of the Frankfort branch of Dadant & Sons, an Illinois-based company that says it is the oldest and largest maker of beekeeping supplies in the U.S.

Guthrie allegedly siphoned money away from his employer through a number of tactics, according to the indictment.

For example, he got customers to pay in cash in exchange for unauthorized discounts, then took the cash, the indictment charged.

He also allegedly stole products from Dadant to sell through his own business, called Guthrie’s Naturals, and created false invoices to cover his crimes.

Guthrie also used his account with Square, a mobile point-of-sale services, to process electronic payments and divert them from Dadant to his own account, the indictment alleged.

In anther instance, the indictment said he altered a check written to the company to make his own company the payee.

Guthrie obtained $692,044 as a result of the alleged wire fraud violations.

Guthrie deleted about 2,000 records from his account with an online data storage service in September 2017 to conceal evidence, according to the indictment.

Dadant fired Guthrie the next month. His business was dissolved after he failed to file an annual report, according to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office, and he later filed for bankruptcy.

On the tax charges, Guthrie allegedly reported a total of $70,500 in income in 2016 and 2017 but failed to report another $326,458, the indictment said.

The wire-fraud charges have a maximum sentence of 20 years.