In a play of deceit that cost California hoteliers dearly, Henry Flynn, a 57-year-old San Jose businessman, has been sentenced to six months in county jail for nicking tens of thousands of dollars from his trusting clients, many of them mom-and-pop hotel owners; Flynn's conviction of grand theft is like deja vu—he got nailed for the same crime back in 2008.
Flynn, the big cheese at Kubo, which hawks management services across the Golden State, coughed up a guilty plea on November 1 last year and has since repaid the hefty sum of $195,000 in restitution to those he swindled, details a report from the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
According to the DA's press release, his punitive vacation behind bars isn't the end of it—Flynn is also looking at three years' probation, during which he can't run a biz touching on the financials of others and must lay his cards on the table with clients about his felonious past.
Jeff Rosen, the district attorney, said, “Trust, but verify,” driving home the message that Flynn's ilk might be less likely to play the grift if small businesses were more hawk-eyed with their cash—a warning felt deeply by those who stared into their ledger books to find a black hole where their money once was.
This isn’t Flynn’s first rodeo diverting funds that weren’t his—he told employees they needed more workers' comp insurance than required. He collected the excessive premiums, and when the refunds rolled in, he lined his pockets with the cash instead of returning it to the hotels, the DA's investigation revealed.
Flynn was finally tripped up in 2018 when a hotel owner smelled a rat and tipped off the DA, who, with their Bureau of Investigation, dug up enough dirt to nail Flynn and his company, Kubo, for filching the funds.
The DA’s Office is schooling local businesses on anti-embezzlement tactics, suggesting a tag team approach to financial oversight, mandatory multiple John Hancocks on fat checks, and thorough background checks on anyone fiddling with the books.
