Opinion ID: 6344487
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fraud on Cambium

Text: In 2004, Windle was hired to be the Director of Budget and Finance at Cambium, a company that provides instructional materials, services, and technology to educators working with struggling students. Windle was responsible for overseeing various financial functions at Cambium, including the preparation of consolidated financial statements, maintenance of financial reporting records, closing of the company's books, payment of company expenses, initiation of wire transfers, and writing and signing of company checks. Windle's fraud involved the purchase of two pieces of real estate, one in Massachusetts and one in Florida. In the first year he was hired, Windle wrote himself two checks totaling more than $1.9 million from Cambium's checking and money market accounts. He used the money to purchase the house in Massachusetts, which his family moved into in 2005. Windle again wrote a check from Cambium's checking account in 2006, that time in the amount of approximately $1.16 million. After falsely representing to the company's Chief Financial Officer that the check was for a transfer of funds between Cambium accounts, Windle used the money to purchase a bank check for a vacation home in Florida. Around the same period, Windle began using his email to direct Cambium's accounts payable staff to issue checks that Windle - 5 - ultimately used for his own personal benefit. He first sent emails asking for checks in amounts totaling close to $180,000, all made payable to Jeffrey S. Windle. Windle falsely represented to the staff that such payments were reimbursements for business expenses he incurred. The staff issued Windle the checks, which he deposited into his personal checking account and used to pay for home renovations and to purchase cars and boats. Windle also directed via email the accounts payable staff to issue checks made payable to CCSD for consulting fees pursuant to Cambium's contract with CCSD. Cambium had no contract with CCSD. Cambium's accounts payable staff issued thirty checks in accordance with Windle's email instructions, for a total of approximately $275,000. Windle deposited the checks into CCSD's bank account and then transferred the funds into his personal account for his and his family's personal use. Between March 2006 and April 2008, Windle also manually wrote numerous checks from Cambium's Bank of America checking account made payable to SDCC and CCSD, and then emailed Cambium's accounts payable to conceal his diversion. His emails instructed the accounts payable staff to record the checks in Cambium's books as inventory purchases. There had been no such inventory purchases. Windle deposited these unauthorized checks, which totaled approximately $4.8 million, into CCSD's account before transferring the funds into his personal account. He set - 6 - up a phony post office box address in the name of Bank of America and fraudulently filled out bank confirmation forms to deceive auditors as to the true balance of Cambium's bank account. From June 2007 through April 2008, Windle used his authority to pay Cambium's vendors from a company account in Colorado (the Sopris West account) to direct numerous wire transfers so that he could purchase real estate, a yacht and other boats, a Mercedes, a golf club membership, and a landscaping service. Windle further used email to ask the Operations Manager at the company's bank for an address change for the Sopris West account so that the account's bank statements would be mailed to Windle (rather than to Cambium's senior staff accountant). Windle then prepared false spreadsheets for Cambium that purported to reflect the Sopris West account's banking transactions and account balances to prevent discovery of the low balance in the account. Windle obtained a total of approximately $5 million from these wire transfers.