Rancho Mirage man sought for embezzling $650,000 captured in Philippines
A man wanted since 2009 for the embezzlement of more than $650,000 from a desert-areaconstruction company has been captured in the Philippines and returned to the United States on Thursdayto face criminal charges.
Homeland Security agents transported Michael Barnett, 51, formerly of Rancho Mirage,from the Philippines to Los Angeles International Airport Thursday where he was turned over to U.S. Marshals andbooked into the Robert Presley DetentionCenter in Riverside on a fugitive arrest warrant.
Authorities first located Barnett in Manila, where he was beingheld in a Homeland Security immigration facility for illegal entry into the Philippines. Earlier thismonth, a judge in the Philippines authorized the deportation of Barnett to the United States. It was known that he had fled to the Philippines in 2009, but authorities had failed to locate him until recently.
In 2004, Barnett and another man formed a general partnership company called Brandon Construction. The netprofits were to be split evenly between the two.They hired Barnett’s wife, Bettina, to do the company’s bookkeeping. Brandon Construction operated fromOctober 2004 until dissolving in July 2006.
After the company dissolved, the man who formed the business with Barnett learned he had no access tocompany bank records. A subsequent investigation done by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department revealedMichael and Bettina Barnett had been moving large sums of money between personal and business accounts in anattempt to hide company profits. The Barnetts had 24 bank accounts through six different financial institutions.A review of financial records showed the Barnetts received payments from Brandon Construction customerswhich should have gone to the company.
A financial analysis determined that a total of $656,000 wasembezzled from Brandon Construction over a 21-month period.
In April 2012, Bettina Barnett pled guilty to one felony count of embezzlement and was sentenced to 180 daysin custody and five years of formal probation.
Michael Barnett is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, April 16, at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
