Mile High Meetings & Incentives in Highlands Ranch is accusing its former chief financial officer of embezzling. (Stock image)
A business that hosts company getaways claims that a forensic accounting firm has uncovered proof that its former chief financial officer embezzled nearly $850,000.
Mile High Meetings & Incentives in Highlands Ranch is a travel company that specializes in planning corporate retreats. Mike Buchl, a disabled veteran, is the sole owner.
Because of his disabilities, which include memory loss and impaired judgment, Buchl hired a CFO, Roger Werner, to oversee the company’s finances between 2011 and 2019.
“Werner, however, violated this trust, took advantage of Mr. Buchl, and embarked on a scheme to enrich himself and drain Mile High of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” that company alleged in a July 11 lawsuit. “This scheme was carried out between 2016 and 2019.”
The lawsuit, filed in Castle Rock, describes an allegedly unsophisticated scheme in which Werner paid his bills with $620,000 in company funds, wrote 55 company checks worth $225,000 to himself, and disguised all of that on the company’s books.
“Mr. Buchl was kept in the dark about the true nature of Mile High’s finances,” it alleges.
In the company’s version of events, that changed when Buchl’s brother, James, began to suspect there was something wrong with the company’s books. A forensic accountant was hired and, in April, they uncovered Werner’s wrongdoing, according to Mile High’s lawsuit. The company is suing Werner for theft, several forms of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
Werner, who left Mile High in 2019, now lives in the Cincinnati area and owns a company called Tri State Tent and Party Rentals, according to his LinkedIn page. Reached by phone a day after the lawsuit was filed in Douglas County District Court, Werner declined to comment.
Mile High is represented by attorneys Cedric Logan and Habib Nasrullah in the Denver office of Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell. They declined to discuss the Werner case.
Mile High Meetings & Incentives in Highlands Ranch is accusing its former chief financial officer of embezzling. (Stock image)
A business that hosts company getaways claims that a forensic accounting firm has uncovered proof that its former chief financial officer embezzled nearly $850,000.
Mile High Meetings & Incentives in Highlands Ranch is a travel company that specializes in planning corporate retreats. Mike Buchl, a disabled veteran, is the sole owner.
Because of his disabilities, which include memory loss and impaired judgment, Buchl hired a CFO, Roger Werner, to oversee the company’s finances between 2011 and 2019.
“Werner, however, violated this trust, took advantage of Mr. Buchl, and embarked on a scheme to enrich himself and drain Mile High of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” that company alleged in a July 11 lawsuit. “This scheme was carried out between 2016 and 2019.”
The lawsuit, filed in Castle Rock, describes an allegedly unsophisticated scheme in which Werner paid his bills with $620,000 in company funds, wrote 55 company checks worth $225,000 to himself, and disguised all of that on the company’s books.
“Mr. Buchl was kept in the dark about the true nature of Mile High’s finances,” it alleges.
In the company’s version of events, that changed when Buchl’s brother, James, began to suspect there was something wrong with the company’s books. A forensic accountant was hired and, in April, they uncovered Werner’s wrongdoing, according to Mile High’s lawsuit. The company is suing Werner for theft, several forms of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
Werner, who left Mile High in 2019, now lives in the Cincinnati area and owns a company called Tri State Tent and Party Rentals, according to his LinkedIn page. Reached by phone a day after the lawsuit was filed in Douglas County District Court, Werner declined to comment.
Mile High is represented by attorneys Cedric Logan and Habib Nasrullah in the Denver office of Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell. They declined to discuss the Werner case.
