Two men are facing charges of embezzling over $1.4 million from a Grantwood restaurant after a recent indictment announced by U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Accused are Matthew Braasch and Mark Erney, both former high-level employees of the establishment; each of the men have been hit with two counts of wire fraud.
On February 20, the indictment was made public, and Mark Erney surrendered this past Friday, pleading not guilty to the charges. Pleaded not guilty also, on February 25 was Matthew Braasch. Despite positions of trust within the company, the indictment alleges that the men used company credit cards to fund a luxury lifestyle instead of necessary business expenses.
The details of the spending spree are stark. According to the indictment by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Braasch's personal purchases included $81,965 at Target, and on local hotel stays for an acquaintance, more than $10,000 spent. A vacation at Disney World cost $2,681, and he spent $1,600 on a golf outing, among other things. Erney, meanwhile, charged $155,696 worth of items from Amazon to the restaurant, and he spent over $37,000 at different local bars and restaurants, including $5,600 on two couches.
These alleged fraudulent actions took a toll on the restaurant's financial stability. It's said that because of the embezzlement, the establishment couldn't afford food and couldn't cover its state taxes, including liquor taxes. Indeed, the situation was so dire that loans had to be taken out, in an effort to cover the shortfall. When state investigators came knocking to collect overdue taxes, Braasch tried to protect their illicit activities by posing as a restaurant manager, keeping the real managers clueless.
Both Erney and Braasch are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise. The case is being managed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman, with the FBI joining forces with the Missouri Department of Revenue's Criminal Tax Investigation Bureau.
