Office manager nabbed in embezzlement

A south Sutter County woman is scheduled to be arraigned July 21 on a charge she embezzled $156,000 while working as the office manager of a Rio Oso construction company.

Deborah Diane Moore, 41, was arrested Friday and booked into the Sutter County Jail. She was freed the next day on bail, according to jail records.

Reached at a construction site near Visalia, Eric Nelson, owner of E.C. Nelson Inc., called the theft "very painful, financially and emotionally. I'm a very small operator."

The loss is not covered by insurance, he said.

Moore stole money "in a variety of ways," said Sutter County Assistant District Attorney Fred Schroeder.

The investigation began in 2006.

"It took awhile to figure out how she did it," said Schroeder.

Nelson said most of the money was taken through electronic transfers.

Nelson said he noticed Moore was making lot of purchases, including a laptop computer and trip to Mexico, but assumed the money came from her boyfriends.

Moore served as office manager for a farming operation as well as the construction company, which specializes in building food-processing facilities, said Nelson.

Contact Appeal reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or ryoung@appealdemocrat.com.