Wash. serial embezzler sentenced to 6 years

TACOMA, Wash. – Dale Frantz claimed he was a changed man after he was convicted of embezzling from his employers in Indiana. So a Tacoma, Wash., company hired him and eventually promoted him to chief information officer.

Bad idea.

The 46-year-old Gig Harbor man was sentenced to just under six years in prison Friday for stealing $516,000 from Auto Warehousing Co.

The U.S. attorney's office says Frantz claimed reimbursement for good and services that were never provided to the company.

Prosecutors say Frantz was fired from Great Lakes Chemical in Indiana in 1991 for using company funds to buy computer equipment for himself. He then moved on to another Indiana company where he deposited much of the daily income from the shop into his own account.

The latter theft earned him a four-year sentence. He joined the Tacoma company in 1998 after being released from prison.