BOWLING GREEN, KY—The former controller of a Russell County, Kentucky manufacturing company was sentenced by Senior District Judge Thomas B. Russell yesterday to 41 months in prison for wire fraud and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $625,096, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Kyle W. Robertson, age 34, of Russell County, Kentucky, admitted in court to causing 36 illegal wire transfers from his employer’s bank account to his personal bank account during a nearly four-year period, beginning on April 28, 2009 and continuing through January 14, 2013. Robertson pleaded guilty to the 12-count federal indictment on December 3, 2013.

According to the plea agreement, Robertson was employed by Bruss North America, Inc., an auto parts manufacturing company located in Russell Springs, Kentucky, as the plant’s controller. Robertson admitted to making false account entries in order to conceal his theft from the German-owned company, with its North America headquarters in Russell Springs. Robertson would fraudulently inflate the value of fixed assets in Bruss accounts and enter the value of assets in Euros rather than dollars to conceal his theft on the balance sheet. Robertson further admitted to causing wire transfers from the company’s bank account at Deutsch Bank in New York, New York to a bank account he maintained with the Monticello Banking Company in Russell Springs, Kentucky. The wire transfers listed in the federal indictment ranged in amount from $12,856.56 to $27,000.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Judd and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Kentucky State Police.