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More than a year after the owner discovered an employee embezzled over $130,000 from the Pleasanton-based company, Bennett Graphics is still dealing with the fallout of the crime that nearly bankrupted the small business.
What made the situation that much more difficult, according to owner Tim Bennett, was that the culprit had been a member of his inner circle — his former daughter-in-law and the mother of his grandchildren.
“Never take your eye of the books or the bookkeeper,” Bennett told the Weekly last week. “Does not matter who they are, do not assume they are honest. You must maintain oversight,”
“Keep paper billing and statements. Easy to switch them to email direct to the bookkeeper, which means you do not see what is going on and are unlikely to open a piece of mail which unravels the whole deal,” he added about the crime, a cautionary tale for small businesses in the Tri-Valley.
Bennett opened up about the experience after the defendant accepted a plea deal two weeks ago.
Heather E. Bjorklund pleaded no contest on Aug. 18 to felony grand theft by embezzlement in exchange for dismissal of the other count against her, felony embezzlement over time (nearly 4-1/2 years).
Probation without jail time and partial restitution was on the table, though the final terms will be confirmed by a judge, according to Bennett.
He said he was “not very satisfied” with the proposed resolution but found it agreeable in the end, especially considering the difficulty in prosecuting white collar crimes and COVID-19 impacts on the justice system.
“I think she’s getting off extremely lightly for what she did … has not expressed remorse yet,” Bennett said of his ex-bookkeeper and former daughter-in-law.
Bjorklund, 34, of Livermore is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28 in Alameda County Superior Court Department 705. Her attorney Melissa E. Adams, from the Livermore law firm Rien, Adams & Cox, declined to comment on the case when contacted Tuesday.
“The District Attorney’s Office remains dedicated to protecting consumers and individual victims from financial crimes of all sort. We strive to ensure that the accused are held accountable and victims are served,” said Teresa Drenick, spokesperson for the Alameda County DA’s Office, which prosecuted the case.
Bennett, a former longtime Pleasanton resident who now lives in Sunol, said the 16-month ordeal has been an eye-opening experience about how white collar crimes are investigated at the local level, the impact of embezzlement on a small business and going through a criminal case in the COVID-19 world.
“The justice system is terribly underfunded and understaffed. Defense attorneys use this to drag out cases and thus encourage the DA to plea deal to get them off the books. This results in inconsistent sentencing and inadequate punishment,” he said. “I think the DA’s Office does a good job under very difficult circumstances. My victim’s advocate was outstanding. They need a bigger budget.”
Bennett said the investigation began unfolding in April 2019 after Bjorklund was fired from T Bennett Services, which does business as Bennett Graphics. Based on Serpentine Lane in Pleasanton, the company designs and produces electrical signage and large printouts for various industries.
Bjorklund had been employed with the company for seven years, first working on the signage end of things before moving into the bookkeeping role in August 2014, according to Bennett. She was a trusted employee and member of Bennett’s inner circle, even staying on with the company for nearly two years after she and her husband, Bennett’s son, separated.
But in the spring of 2019, Bjorklund allegedly began acting strangely and underperforming at work, so Bennett talked about bringing in a consultant to help with the company’s books.
After she no-showed for work one day, Bennett said he fired his former daughter-in-law. He said soon thereafter a check from the company to Bjorklund cleared the bank, but when he texted her for an explanation, he got no response.
That led Bennett and a consultant to look into the company’s records, and they found more than $46,000 in fraudulent checks from 2018 and 2019. He then contacted the Pleasanton Police Department in the hopes of pressing charges.
“White collar crime is not treated the same way as, say, robbery. The amounts of money involved could be the same, but the attitude to each is totally different. I was told over and over again that my case would never be prosecuted because it was ‘white collar crime,'” he said.
Prosecutors would file a criminal complaint against Bjorklund in November 2019, but only after further internal investigation by Bennett that revealed more than $130,000 in stolen funds between 2014 and 2019.
“Not only was $130,000-plus gone, the books were in a terrible mess. There were unpaid sales taxes ($21,000), vendors that we owed more to than the books showed, and on and on,” Bennett told the Weekly.
After originally pleading not guilty to the two felony counts, Bjorklund accepted a plea deal several weeks before her preliminary hearing. She pleaded no contest to felony grand theft by embezzlement on Aug. 18 before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Stevens in a remote hearing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bjorklund, who never spent any time in jail in the case, remains released on her own recognizance while the case has been referred to the county probation department for a review and report ahead of sentencing on Sept. 28.
According to Bennett, the sentence recommended by the attorneys in the deal calls for up to five years of felony probation with no jail time and approximately $93,000 in restitution in the form of signing over to Bennett the equity she accumulated in his son’s house during their marriage.
Bennett said he accepts the final resolution but feels “frustrated” with the apparent end result, thinking that the defendant should face “some restriction on her movement” such as home confinement since prison time is likely not in play given COVID-19 conditions.
He added that he has no idea where the pilfered cash went and his son was in the dark as they kept separate bank accounts in their marriage.
“The personal side was harder than the business side,” Bennett said, reflecting on the case.
Bennett Graphics remains in operation today, but “it took nine months of grueling work for no pay (for me) to save the business and the jobs of the five people here,” Bennett said. The company has been able to continue operating during the pandemic, with clientele in the emergency services field such as Stanford Health Care-ValleyCare.
“We are lucky because my understanding is most small businesses that get embezzled fail,” he said.
As a Pleasanton business owner I strongly recommend that business owners stay closely involved in the accounting aspects of their business.