Newman man charged with embezzling more than $450,000 from Los Banos business

A former employee faces felony charges in connection with an alleged years-long embezzlement scheme that cost the owners of Toscano RV Center in Los Banos nearly half a million, according to Merced County Superior Court records.

The ex-employee, James Joshua Medina, 37, of Newman, has pleaded not guilty.

Medina worked as a manager for the parts department the family-owned Toscano RV for 10 years and had access to business accounts that allowed him to place orders, according to Merced County Sheriff’s Office investigation reports. The business sells RV parts throughout the country.

“We almost lost our business because of this,” said LeAne Santos-Sousa, a bookkeeper for Toscano RV.

Neither Medina nor his court-appointed public defender, Richard Berger, could be reached for comment Thursday.

According to reports from investigators, Medina was believed to have sold generators online at about half price between 2010 and 2015. He would tell the buyer to transfer the funds to his personal PayPal account instead of the business account, the reports state.

Medina would then order the generators using discount prices and ship them from a Georgia-based distributor, Stag-Parkway, directly to the buyer. But Toscano RV would be left with the full bill from the distributor, according to the reports.

The alleged scheme is believed to have cost the company $458,871.94, Santos-Sousa’s husband and Toscano RV Business Manager Jeff Sousa told investigators. Medina was estimated to have pocked about half that amount, authorities said.

The scheme went undetected because the discrepancies of $10,000 to $15,000 on invoices weren’t immediately noticed, according to reports.

Toscano RV’s finances were mixed in with other businesses owned by the family, including a car dealership, two duck clubs and three gas stations, Sousa told authorities. Also, Stag-Parkway was a vendor the business dealt with often, according to the reports.

But Santos-Sousa said she started paying attention to the transactions after the business bank account started running low.

When confronted about outstanding payments to the distributor, Medina claimed the distributor was eventually going to credit Toscano RV, authorities said.

The businesses needed to get a bank loan to cover bills because of the scheme, Santos-Sousa said.

But in 2015, Santos-Sousa was tipped off about the alleged theft. She confronted Medina about it, and he stopped coming to work, according to the reports.

At one point, Medina had agreed to return the money in installments, but the owners told authorities they never received any repayments, according to the reports.

Medina admitted to detectives he embezzled the money, knew it was wrong, that he was remorseful and claimed he was “having a hard time mentally” because of the guilt, according to the reports.

He said he used the money from the embezzlement to pay car payments, rent, credit cards, other debt and to support an expensive relationship that included alcohol and partying, the reports say.

On the suggestion of deputies, Medina also wrote an apology letter to Santos, which detectives told him would show he had remorse for his actions, according to the reports.

The Santos family wanted to pursue criminal charges to deter future employees because it was the second time an employee has embezzled from the business, Santos-Sousa said, noting another former employee in the mid-2000s was caught stealing cash from a gas station and changing account numbers.

Santos-Sousa said the family is waiting on the criminal case to be resolved before deciding whether to file a civil complaint.

“I think people should be aware,” she said. “If you do embezzle from people there can be repercussions.”

Medina’s next court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 12.