A former chief financial officer at a local company has pleaded guilty for embezzling more than $6.5 million from his employer.
Douglas Ferrell, 34, of Kansas City, waived his right to a grand jury Thursday and pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
Ferrell started working for Scarbrough International at the Kansas City headquarters. The company is a privately owned, U.S. Customs Broker and international freight forwarder.
In Thursday’s guilty plea, Ferrell admitted to embezzling $6,523,742 from the company for personal use.
According to court documents, from Sept. 2006 to June 2014 Ferrell schemed to embezzle company funds by making unauthorized personal charges to the company’s credit card and PayPal accounts and using company funds to pay those charges.
Ferrell also wired some of the proceeds of the fraud to a bank in the Cayman Islands to buy a beach house and used some embezzled money to renovate and furnish the house.
Ferrell faces up to 30 years in federal prison without parole. Restitution is estimated to be $1,940,462.
Sentencing will be at a later date.
