Business & Tech

Man Gets 16 Months for Embezzlement

Richard Schwalbe is sentenced to 16 months in jail and nearly $1.4 million in restitution after embezzling from Solectron, the Milpitas-based company acquired by Flextronics.

A Marin County man convicted of embezzling more than $1.3 million from a Milpitas tech firm acquired by Flextronics was sentenced last week to 16 months in jail, as well as nearly $1.4 million in restitution.

Richard Schwalbe, 57, had pleaded no contest in late June to two counts of grand theft after a Department of Justice investigation found that Schwalbe took advantage of his position at Solectron Corporation to collect in his own account over $800,000 in debt owed to the firm.

In a second scheme, Schwalbe misused his job as a global credit manager at Solectron Corp. in Milpitas to renegotiate a debt owed by Singapore-based Insiphil, causing the company to continue making payments to an account controlled by Schwalbe.

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Schwalbe allegedly set up a fictitious business with a Mill Valley banking account in which he deposited the funds. In total, Schwalbe embezzled more than $1.3 million from Solectron, state prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Douglas Horngrad wrote in an email that his client entered the plea of no contest "based on the state of the evidence and because he did not wish to put his family through any further anguish."

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Although Schwalbe was prosecuted by the state attorney general, he will spend 16 months at the  in Milpitas where Flextronics is headquartered.

This also ends the civil suit filed by Flextronics, according to Horngrad.

"Embezzlement is a serious crime and comes with serious consequences," Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement. "White-collar criminals must be held to the same standards as everyone else."

Schwalbe, a debt and bankruptcy consultant, was arrested at his Tamalpais Valley home in January 2010 on a warrant from the state Department of Justice. He was sentenced in Santa Clara County Superior Court, where the case was prosecuted.


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