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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe former chief financial officer of Ovation Audio-Video Solution LLC received a three-year suspended sentence Monday after pleading guilty to securities fraud in connection with a scheme that allowed him to embezzle more than $600,000 from the company.
While Alfred Talens was serving as CFO for Ovation, he was simultaneously working as a partner with Ascension Wealth Management LLC. Investigators said he persuaded one of his Ascension clients to invest $400,000 with Ovation. Talens told his client he would receive a 7 percent interest rate on the three-year investment.
Talens then told Ovation he had a client interested in investing money in a new business venture for the company. Talens told Ovation he invested $150,000 of his own money and that his client invested $250,000 for a total of $400,000. The reality was all of the money came from Talens’ client.
In addition to lying about how much was being invested by himself and his client, Talens never used the money for Ovation’s business and never made payments to the client who invested. Instead, Talens used the money for a personal sports club membership, airline tickets, credit cards bills, home improvements, Pacers tickets, along with numerous other luxury services and products, investigators said.
The theft was discovered in 2014 when an Ovation employee discovered several suspicious purchases, cash withdraws and checks written to Ascension. When confronted, Talens claimed he was repaying himself for the $150,000 he falsely claimed to have invested.
Talens, 41, was ordered to pay $616,858 in restitution, with the first payment of $150,000 due this week.
Indianapolis-based Ovation had as many as seven stores in the early 2000s. But it contracted after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006. Its website says the company has a presence in Indianapolis and Louisville.
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