Man embezzled $9M from brother-in-law

NORFOLK, Va., July 28 (UPI) -- A Virginia man has been sentenced to six years and five months in prison for embezzling millions of dollars from his boyhood friend and brother-in-law.

A judge also ordered Rick Eddleman, at a hearing Monday, to repay $910,000, The Virginian-Pilot reported. But Tom Holland, who has been struggling to keep his company, Decipher Inc., going, said he does not expect to get the money Eddleman siphoned off over nearly a decade.

Holland hired Eddleman, 58, who is married to his sister, in 1992 to run the company's computers, which turned into a position managing its finances. Since he founded the company, based in Norfolk, Va., in 1983, he had been successful in marketing role-playing games and trading cards.

Eight years later, when Eddleman complained he was being overworked, the company hired an accountant to assist him. The accountant uncovered $120,000 in unexplained expenses, and Holland now believes Eddleman stole $9 million.

Eddleman pleaded guilty to 12 counts of theft.

Holland said his brother-in-law's methods included everything from giving himself two paychecks at a time to paying at restaurants with a company credit card. He spent most of the money.

"It was literally dozens and dozens of ways," Holland said. "It was not a crime. It was a lifestyle."