An employee of a Santa Ana-based lab and technical furniture company pleaded not guilty Thursday to embezzling thousands of dollars.
Jose Becerra was charged Feb. 19 with two counts of grand theft by embezzlement, two counts of making false entries in records or returns, a count of receiving stolen property, a count of grand theft and a count of computer access and fraud, all felonies.
Becerra is accused of stealing money from Workstation Industries Inc. before he was fired in March 2022, according to the criminal complaint.
The company’s owner discovered the theft while doing an audit after she fired him, the complaint alleges. Prior to that she had confronted him “about suspicious behavior on the jobsite and surrounding work purchases,” according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, she was distracted as caretaker for her ailing husband, who died in 2021, and was not on site at the workplace them the thefts were taking place. Prosecutors alleged the loss was $82,034.56.
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