A Santa Clarita man was sentenced Wednesday to 13 months behind bars and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution for embezzling funds from the Claremont Colleges Services, where he was an electrical shop supervisor.
Steven Cowles, 45, pleaded guilty in January in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of wire fraud.
As a shop supervisor, Cowles was responsible for maintaining electrical components at the college institutions, including ordering parts and supplies when needed, court papers show.
Cowles admitted that from June 2018 to July 2024, he misappropriated $1 million from his employer through at least 1,343 unauthorized transactions for expenses unrelated to Claremont College operations by fraudulently using employer-provided purchasing cards in his name, according to his plea agreement filed in L.A. federal court.
Cowles provided his employer false invoices and other forms — purporting to show legitimate purchases of needed electrical products — to conceal the fraud, prosecutors said. He also linked his employer-provided purchasing cards with his personal PayPal account and initiated transfers from the cards to third parties, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Claremont Colleges Services is the support organization for the seven Claremont Colleges located in Los Angeles County.