Former iPayment executives face embezzlement charges
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged two former iPayment executives March 10 with causing an estimated $11.6 million in losses to the Westlake Village company through fraudulent accounting practices including false expense reimbursements and inflated invoices.
Criminal charges were also brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California against the two former executives, according to the SEC statement. Robert Torino formerly served as chief operating officer, and Nasir Shakouri formerly served as vice president of sales and marketing.
Additionally, the SEC complaint alleges that former iPayment executives Bronson Quon, John Hong and Jonathan Skari participated in falsifying records and received rewards for assisting in the fraud. The SEC will attempt to recover the “ill-gotten gains,” including interest and penalties, and bar the involved parties from serving as officers or directors of public companies, the statement said.
“As publicly reported by the company in 2012, the company was the sole victim of the embezzlement schemes, and no merchants, agents or other business partners of the company were affected,” iPayment said in a news release March 10, adding that it has cooperated fully with the government agencies involved since the fraud was discovered.
iPayment Vice President of Marketing Jenn Reichenbacher declined further comment. None of the defendants could be reached for comment.
• Contact Marissa Nall at mnall@pacbiztimes.com.
