Fraud Friday — Photoshopped Fake AR Invoices Results in $29 Million Loan Loss, 250 Jobs Lost

August 3, 2018

By Dominic J Bartolone
Contributing Editor, Fraud Friday

Fraud Friday — Photoshopped Fake AR Invoices Results in $29 Million Loan Loss, 250 Jobs Lost

The former CEO of Worley & Obetz was accused of carrying out “massive bank fraud” and personally pocketing more than $1 million in illicit funds.

A Pennsylvania-based energy company, Worley & Obetz has shuttered its doors and 250 people have lost their jobs — implying former CEO Jeffrey Lyon’s fraud was the primary reason.
Lyons has yet to be criminally charged with any wrongdoing.

Fulton Financial has issued a statement detailing a $29.1 million loss stemming from $48 million in loans made to Worley & Obetz. Fulton had previously predicted that the after-tax loss would be as high as $32 million.

After cutbacks, Worley & Obetz planned to move forward as a smaller organization, but after Fulton fought the reorganization plan, the company was forced to cease operations on June 4.

A Fulton lawsuit offered details on how Lyons provided the bank with “fake account receivables” for at least the past four years.

The photoshopped documents presented by Lyons inflated the amounts paid or owed to the company by its customers, and based on those falsified numbers, Fulton “extended millions of dollars of loans to Worley & Obetz and its affiliates.”

The bank alleges that Lyons personally directly or indirectly siphoned off over $1 million in bank funds from loans made against the photoshopped accounts receivables.