Rochester Man Admits to Paycheck Padding Scheme

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - A Rochester man is scheduled to be sentenced in May for stealing from his employer.

44-year-old Blake Allyn Schaefer recently entered into a plea agreement and admitted to two of the three felony theft charges filed against him. He was accused of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from an Oronoco area business while working as the company's Chief Financial Officer.

According to the criminal complaint, the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office was called to the company's office in November 2022 by the owner. He alleged that Schaefer had stolen more than $150,000 from the company starting in 2017 and ending with his termination in November 2022.

The court documents say Schaefer was interviewed by an investigator and admitted padding his paycheck by reporting extra hours worked. "Well, I kind of got money tight and I started to pad some hours, run some extra hours on my paycheck." "It was totally my mistake. I shouldn't have done it, and it caught up with me which it should have. It was just a dumb decision, a very dumb decision." "I guess it was probably a couple of years ago that I started it. Two years ago, maybe. I don't know what prompted me to think I would do it. I just got money tight on a situation."

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The complaint says Schaefer went on to say that he would run about 40 hours extra per month and estimated the amount of money involved at around $60,000. He also indicated that he had apologized to his former employer and offered to make up the hours.

The charges say the company's insurance firm paid for a forensic audit that looked at a time period running from late August 2021 through late November 2022. It documented misappropriated company funds through payment of excess wages that totaled more than $99,000. It was noted that that does not include activity that occurred between January 2017 and in the summer of August 2021.