Eric McAlpine worked for our company as a book keeper at American Titleworks. He was never a signer of checks, never had authority to wire funds, never had authority to do anything but balance the books and keep track of all checks incoming and outgoing. That is what he was hired for as a subcontractor and his company Financial Innovations. This is what he managed to do to us.
He started working for us in 2001 as a book keeper. Through our investigations and over 2 years of lawsuits this guy was able to tangle family members, personal friends and business associates into his scam. So when I explain what he was able to do, if you have a business you need to check everything. With in months of us hiring him he managed to steal our corporate filing papers. He photo copied them and by using a little cut and paste he was able to put our company name on his company papers (Financial Innovations) and open a bank account at Lakeside Community Bank in Sterling Heights MI. This gave him the ability to deposit income checks on average of $16,000 monthly into this fake account. He then washed the money through several other business accounts he had. He even paid for one of his clients payroll taxes with this stolen money (DuValls Hair Salon in Utica). Over 5 years time he was able to steal over $800,000 from our company's general fund. And if that's not enough he managed to convert 14 escrow checks over 3 years totaling over $1,400, 000. You might ask how didn't anyone recognize this missing money. Well that is a great question. Since we had 6 audits by our underwriters (First American Title one of them) and they found nothing. We had 2 CPA's checking the books and found nothing. You would assume that everything was OK. Far from the truth. This guy thought passing these audits as trophy's. He even bragged to his brother in law about his accomplishments. His wife who is a teacher stands by his side and defends his actions. Never asked how he could work 3 days a week and buy a 36 ft Rinker boat, a 30 foot motor home, a new Seadoo, Apartment building, Condo's (One of which he never rented but furnished and had a complete setup for himself as a getaway spot 15 minutes from his home) You have to wonder what that was really used for. This guy was living the life and his wife rides the wave with him but claims she knew nothing about it. I don't know about all marriages but I know my wife know about every penny we have and if I buy something she has questions.
Anyways we have been forced into several lawsuits defending ourselves over his theft. He continues to walk around to this day spending money on big vacations, big gifts to his family and living it large to this day. He started a new company called Financial Business Solutions and I could only imagine what scam he is doing or planning today.
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