Former IMEX Executive Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $1.6 Million

By David Stephens, WSGC Radio, Elberton

An executive for IMEX in Elbert County has pleaded guilty to embezzling over a million dollars from his company.

On Wednesday, former IMEX Chief Accountant David Warren admitted to theft in Elbert County Superior Court under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Northern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Parks White said Warren was employed as a Chief Accountant at IMEX, and began stealing in January of 2009.

“Staring in January 2009, Warren began stealing from his employer using a scheme of drafting counter checks for cash at the company’s bank,” White said. “Because of his position in the company, his actions went unchecked. In December 2012, discrepancies alerted employees at IMEX to Warren’s theft, which he admitted to. However, after having been fired, Warren transferred an additional $25,000 from company accounts to his accounts electronically.”

The District Attorney’s Office received all the documents from IMEX and conducted its own investigation, which revealed that Warren embezzled approximately $1.6 million from IMEX over a four-year period.

The investigation by the DA’s office resulted in the Elbert County Grand Jury indicting Warren on one count of Violation of the RICO Act in April 2014.

Warren had admitted he spent all of the money and it looked like IMEX would not get that money back. But White says Warren is the beneficiary of a large trust fund with significant assets.

White said though that due to provisions of that trust, the IMEX would be not be able to be re-imbursed from that account if Warren went to prison.

“Due the provisions of the trust, Mr. Warren’s victim would be unable touch the corpus,” White explained. “This meant that if Mr. Warren were to be sent to prison, his victim would be left without restitution, and Mr. Warren would have his trust account to return to upon being paroled. The trust did have a provision allowing for the dispersement of the corpus, if failure to do so would result in Mr. Warren not living a lifestyle to which he was accustomed. “

White said after conferring with Warren’s attorney, his office agreed to a probated sentence.   Warren, after spending roughly a year in jail, was sentenced to 40-years probation and was ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution, as well as a $150,000 in fines.
IMEX company officials have agreed to the sentence.