by Bay City News
A former accountant for a San Francisco construction company has been arrested and charged with embezzlement for diverting tax payments to his own account, District Attorney George Gascon announced Tuesday.
Randy LaQuay, 55, of Walnut Creek, was a senior-level accountant at Ryan Associates and had worked for the company for more than 25 years handling financial issues including the payment of taxes to the state's Employment Development Department.
LaQuay quit the company earlier this year and, days later, his supervisor was contacted by the state agency and notified that tax payments had not been received, according to the district attorney's office.
An investigation revealed that over a three-year period, LaQuay had been recording checks as paid to the EDD when he had actually been writing them to himself for a total of $219,337.50, prosecutors said.
LaQuay was arrested on Sept. 21 in Contra Costa County and was arraigned Monday on grand theft, embezzlement and forgery charges.
He pleaded not guilty and will return to court on Jan. 9 for a status hearing, prosecutors said.
