Former CFO charged with stealing $600K from Indy-based company

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man was charged with multiple felonies Monday for stealing approximately $600,000 from an Indianapolis-based business while he was working as the company’s chief financial officer, according to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.

Alfred Talens was the CFO of Ovation Audio-Video Solutions when the thefts allegedly began in late 2011, four months after he was hired.

He is accused of using company funds to pay for personal expenses, including airline tickets, Indiana Pacers tickets and payments on a loan for an RV.

A company official reported suspicious activity to the prosecutor’s office grand jury division in May 2014 after finding unauthorized cash withdraws and checks written from the company’s corporate accounts.

“Employers and coworkers place a great deal of trust in individuals who have authority over a company’s finances,” Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry stated in a media release Monday afternoon. “Too often we see that trust exploited by individuals who divert company dollars and property to their personal use, as alleged in this case,”

The prosecutor’s office detailed another incident also involving Talens:

Additionally, Talens is accused of taking $240,000 from a client he served while acting as an investment advisor at Ascension Wealth Management Group. It is suspected that Talens indicated to the client that the funds were withdrawn to be an investment in Ovation, but were in fact deposited in the Ovation corporate account with the intention of using the funds for personal expenses or to hide his prior and ongoing theft from the company.

He was arrested June 22, and a pretrial conference is scheduled for August 11.