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| Alison Mutispaugh was charged with embezzling from nine local businesses, including Perkins & Orrison Inc. (JASON BACAJ/The Rockbridge Report) |
A local businesswoman has been charged with nine felony counts of embezzlement and six felony counts of forgery in a case involving a number of local businesses.
Alison Mutispaugh was arrested earlier this month and has been charged with embezzling from local companies including the Red Hen, the Lexington Company, Borden Condominium Homeowners, AMG Properties, the Dutch Inn, Schweizer Associates, Valley Pike Commons, Pikes Place Homeowners Association and Perkins & Orrison Inc. Mutispaugh’s criminal court date is set for April 17.
One of the companies, Perkins & Orrison, has filed a civil suit against Mutispaugh, asking for $99,800.
According to the case file in the civil suit, Mutispaugh handled the Perkins & Orrison payroll for the past three years through her Lexington bookkeeping company, Bottom Line Business Services. The civil suit alleges that Mutispaugh made a statement to Lexington Police investigator Sgt. Mark Riley that she forged signatures on at least 18 checks from Perkins & Orrison, embezzling more than $65,000 in the months of August, November, and January.
According to the file, she initially said the stolen money was for some of her other customers who had fallen on hard times, but further police investigation found otherwise.
Riley said in a phone interview that the Police Department would issue a statement regarding the case later.
Mutispaugh was convicted in 1995 in Roanoke and Salem on five counts of forgery and three counts of embezzlement. She was sentenced to 15 years in state prison, but had five years of her sentence suspended and was released in 2005.
Wes Perkins of Perkins & Orrison, a civil engineering and land surveying firm, said the company was unaware of Mutispaugh’s record when she was hired three years ago.
“In hindsight that was a big mistake for us, not doing a background check,” said Perkins. The eight other businesses declined to comment.
Perkins would not speculate on how the incident might affect the future of the company, which has offices in Lexington and Lynchburg, employing about 26 people.
“Any time something like this happens,” he said, “it’s a shock.”
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