Former employee accused of embezzling more than $500,000 from Miami-Dade company

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Florida. — A former employee of a northwest Miami-Dade real estate company is facing nearly 20 felony charges after police said he stole more than half a million dollars from the company.

George Alexander Wheeler, 55, of Stuart, is accused of using the funds to pay off credit card debt and making direct payments into his own bank accounts.

He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Monday afternoon after his first arrest in Martin County.

According to Miami-Dade police, Wheeler was controller at CPF Investment Group, a company listed as inactive in Florida business records but registered at an address in a commercial area west of Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.

According to an arrest warrant, Wheeler worked as a freelancer and billed the company through his company, Kingfisher Consulting LLC. Investigators said his duties “included paying his own payroll directly as a 1099 employee,” as well as paying CPF and its owner’s personal expenses and entering the expenses into accounting software.

Authorities said Wheeler stole $519,502 from the company before the owner discovered the fraud in December 2023 after American Express corporate security contacted the owner, leading to the owner firing him and filing a police report .

Police said more than $370,000 of the stolen funds were used to pay off credit card accounts, while he made about $150,000 in unauthorized payments to his own bank accounts.

They said he also improperly increased his own salary by $1,800 a month, even though they noted in the arrest warrant that he would not be charged for it.

Authorities said an accountant who reviewed the company's QuickBooks entries as part of an independent tax audit found that Wheeler had incorrectly coded several entries as “owner's draws,” falsely implying that the payments were to the CPF. benefited owners even though they actually went to accounts controlled by Wheeler.

Police said he also made several blank entries to hide his actions.

Wheeler faces one count of first-degree organized fraud, two counts of first-degree grand larceny, one second-degree count of intellectual property infringement and 15 counts of third-degree making false entries in corporate books.

He remained at TGK late Tuesday morning on a $112,500 bond, according to online records.

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