Manager uses company credit card for family meals, vacations and boating, feds say

An area business manager for a Missouri crop science company used his work credit card for more than $100,000 in personal purchases, according to federal authorities.

From about May 2014 to March 2022, authorities said Matthew Olinger used the company credit card for family meals, vacations, clothes, boating and other entertainment.

“In total, (Olinger) racked up at least $180,000 in charges on his corporate credit card that were not in any way connected with his employment,” according to his signed plea agreement.

Now, the 40-year-old man from Florida has been sentenced to one year and a day in prison on a felony wire fraud charge, according to a Nov. 16 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. He was also ordered to pay $183,424 in restitution, court records show.

McClatchy News reached out to Olinger’s defense attorney on Nov. 17 and was awaiting a response.

Authorities said Olinger hid his theft by submitting fake and altered receipts to his employer.

As an area business manager, Olinger was allowed to use company funds to help seedsmen, “employees who sold seeds to regional customers,” buy certain agricultural equipment, prosecutors said.

In 2022, he misused $100,000 in company funds to help a seedsman buy a 2022 Cobalt R35 boat and trailer with no business purpose, authorities said.

“Olinger authorized an employee to sign a contract with a (seedsman) that would have misappropriated $75,000 in company funds each year for a decade, or a total of $750,000, to buy the Cobalt boat and the trailer and pay associated boating expenses,” officials said. “Olinger stole $100,000 in company funds by submitting three fraudulent funding requests to his employer for a ‘seed tender’ and ‘seed equipment’ before his scheme was discovered by the company.”

Authorities said the stolen money has since been repaid.

This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Manager uses company credit card for family meals, vacations and boating, feds say."