Employee charged with defrauding R.I. small business

PROVIDENCE –  An accounts payable clerk for Décor Craft Inc. was charged with mishandling roughly $302,000 for personal use and for use by an acquaintance, the state’s U.S. Attorney’s Office said on Monday.

The Providence-based company sells gifts and home-decor items.

Grant Devillez, 35, of Dayville, Conn., faces 10 counts of wire fraud in U.S. District Court. He was responsible at the company for preparing lists of proposed vendor payments and making those payments after company approval.

The government claims that Devillez sometimes made partial payments or no payments to some vendors for nearly three years, transferring the balance from his employer’s bank account to his own or to an account owned by another person.

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It was also alleged that Devillez falsified records to reflect the full payment had been made to vendors.

The alleged behavior was said to have begun in October 2015.

If found guilty, Devillez could face up to 20 years in prison, a fine of twice the gross loss and three years of supervised release.