NBI nabs 2 who stole P20 million from firm

A former accounts executive accused of siphoning off at least P20 million from the coffers of his events and activation company was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila on Thursday.

NBI deputy spokesperson Auralyn Pascual said Michael Maret would be charged with qualified theft, a nonbailable offense if the amount involved was more than P2 million, for duping his employer for at least two years.

The firm’s owner, “Lea,” told reporters in a conference that Maret and his accomplice, fellow accounts manager Rosemarie Miranda, fabricated transactions with clients and often padded the costs of such bogus transactions.

Bogus receipts

“For example, if we were to organize an event, they would tell us the client was asking for additional items and we would release more money to them,” Lea said.

“The clients are unaffected but the company was almost put in the red because of the large amounts of money lost to both of them,” she said.

She said she started to suspect when she received an anonymous message in 2017 warning her of the modus operandi in her company.

An audit revealed that Maret and Miranda had stolen at least P20 million in bogus receipts and job orders.

She said she initially gave them a chance to pay back, but instead the two started a competing firm.