Men From Blaine, Minneapolis Found Guilty of Embezzlement
MINNEAPOLIS (WJON News) -- Two Minnesota men have been found guilty of embezzling funds from Park Nicollet Health Services.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 59-year-old Gregory Koch of Minneapolis and 58-year-old Jerome Kangas of Blaine were found guilty of taking hundreds of thousand dollars from their employer over the course of five years.
Court records show starting in 2013 Kangas and Koch worked together as a clinician and a supervisor at the Park Nicollet CPAP clinic. According to the documents, from then until 2018 when Koch was laid off due to the transfer of ownership of the clinic to HealthPartners, the men worked together to defraud the company.
Records show Koch gave Kangas credit for over 8,500 weekday hours despite the fact that he only worked at the clinic on weekends and during after hours. According to court records, Kangas was either out of town or working for another employer during those hours. Evidence shows Koch logged onto the work network with Kangas’ computer and also helped him change his password to cover up the scheme.
The documents also show over the course of 12-days in August 2017, Kangas made six withdrawals between $5,000 and $5,500 from four Wells Fargo branches totaling $30,500. Several days later, Koch made a deposit of $29,300 in his personal account.
The men were convicted of charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and currency transaction structuring. Each charge comes with a potential sentence of five years. They will be sentenced at a later date.