Indianapolis bookkeeper faces 16 felony charges in alleged $300,000 theft

The owner of Indianapolis-based Balanced Bookkeeping & Tax Service Inc. has been charged with 16 felonies for allegedly stealing more than $300,000 in client funds, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday.

Roscoe G. Fields of Indianapolis faces 14 counts of forgery and one count each of corrupt business influence and theft, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Fields, 76, is accused of mishandling money from client Biblical Dogs Inc., which hired Balanced Bookkeeping in 2009 to handle its payroll and tax payments. In this role, Fields was responsible for making contact with a third-party payroll company, producing payroll tax reports and making tax deposits with both the Internal Revenue Service and the Indiana Department of Revenue.

Instead, investigators allege, Fields issued checks from the Biblical Dogs bank account to himself and deposited those checks into an unrelated account. Investigators also believe Fields changed Biblical Dogs’ business address to the same as Balanced Bookkeeping’s, and named himself and his wife as attorneys-in-fact for Biblical Dogs without the victim’s knowledge.

The victim became aware of the situation when both the IRS and the Indiana Department of Revenue seized funds from her bank accounts, according to the prosecutor's press release.

IBJ was unable to immediately reach Roscoe Fields for comment Tuesday.

Biblical Dogs does business as J and M Forensic Consultants. The forensic consulting firm, owned by Joye M. Carter, offers expert witness testimony, second-look post mortem examinations and case reviews for insurance and defense cases.

According to online records for Marion County Superior Court, the case against Fields was opened Nov. 22. An arrest warrant was served Nov. 29, and Fields was released from the Marion County Jail that same day on bond. Fields is scheduled for a pretrial conference on Jan. 24.

Investigators are asking members of the public to come forward if they have information related to the case.

Balanced Bookkeeping is located at 6100 N. Keystone Ave. Fields is the company’s vice president, and Deborah Fields is its president, according to records on file with the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office. The business was incorporated in 1997.