SAN DIEGO
A Nevada man who ran an Oceanside bookkeeping business pleaded guilty Tuesday in San Diego federal court to stealing more than $183,000 from one of his clients, a family-owned lighting business in San Diego.
Arthur Jason Morales, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, admitting that he issued himself 28 unauthorized checks from the accounts of Hyperikon, Inc., according to prosecutors.
Morales, who ran AJ’s Tax & Bookkeeping Service, sometimes forged the signatures of Hyperikon’s management to write himself the checks, then concealed the payments in Hyperikon’s ledgers by making them look like legitimate expenses paid to third-party vendors, according to prosecutors.