Accountant sentenced in $500,000 embezzlement

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- An accountant convicted of embezzling more than $500,000 from an Ontario land development company was sentenced this morning to 180 days in jail.

Heng Bill Chhay, 37, brought about $557,000 in restitution checks to West Valley Superior Court to repay Empire Cos., where Chhay worked as an accountant during the alleged embezzlement, said Deputy District Attorney Michael Dowd.

In order to repay the embezzled money, Chhay, of Arcadia, "mortgaged his home, and then he received loans from family members," Dowd said.

Chhay pleaded no contest to grand theft in March as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors.

During the last 14 months of Chhay's employment at Empire Cos. -- where he worked from 2006 to 2008 -- Chhay allegedly wrote himself 13 checks from company accounts and deposited them into his personal bank accounts.

He would manipulate the company's computer system to make it appear the checks had been voided prior to being cashed, according to an investigative report attached to his court file.

In Chhay's confession in October to a U.S. Postal Service criminal investigator, the married father of three said he felt Empire Cos. didn't compensate him enough for his work, and he felt unappreciated by his employer, the report says.