By Anne Geggis
A Parkland man who managed risk for a national car rental company admitted that he has been taking his employer for a ride — stealing $1.45 million.
That money was supposed to pay for car expenses, but court papers show David Michael Kramer, 41, used Enterprise Holdings subsidiary’s money for vacations, designer clothing, and jewelry, including two Cartier love bracelets and three Rolex watches, according to the charges filed against him.
Kramer, whose job was based in Coconut Creek, admitted to five counts of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Missouri on Oct. 1 and will face sentencing on Feb. 9, 2021. He could get up to 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines, according to sentencing guidelines.
“During the relevant time period (2009 to June 2020), defendant Kramer submitted at least 694 false and fraudulent check requests to the Group 41 Accounts Payable department,” court papers say.
Enterprise Holdings Inc. includes car rental companies Alamo, Enterprise, and National.
Kramer, who was hired as a management trainee in 2002, rose to the level of Enterprise’s risk manager for all of South Florida. That gave him the ability to authorize payments when cars needed towing or cleaning, court papers say. He exploited the company’s risk management system so it couldn’t be easily detected that the money was going to his personal account instead of paying for the invoiced items, according to court papers in a lawsuit that Enterprise has filed against him.
“Defendant took advantage of … risk management practices he helped create, submitting the invoices in a way designed to avoid any additional oversight or approval,” the suit against him says.
His attorney, Richard Cooper of Miami, declined to comment further.
Kramer submitted about one to six fraudulent invoices every month, according to court papers. And they became more numerous as 2020 progressed, the papers say. Kramer was fired from his job in June. And in July, he filed to recover his $250,000 retirement account with the company.
Enterprise, however, is suing to keep the money in the account.
“The (retirement) plan account represents the only funds known to EHI (Enterprise Holdings Inc.) that would be accessible to it to recover even a small portion of the total amount embezzled by Defendant over the course of at least ten years,” court papers say.
Kramer also will have to give back the watches and the jewelry, court papers say.
Send your news to Parkland’s #1 news source, Parkland Talk.