Former Primus Construction accountant accused of embezzling more than $390,000

CEDAR RAPIDS - An accountant with a Cedar Rapids construction company was charged Thursday with embezzling nearly $393,000 over an eight-year period during her 16 years with the company.

Teresa Meeks was charged with one count of wire fraud Thursday in U.S. District Court. Meeks, former accountant and controller, is accused of embezzling $392,872 from Primus Construction, 401 Eighth Ave. SE, and related companies Primus Industrial Inc. and PCI Steel LLC, an affidavit with the complaint states. She had full access to the company's accounts and could write checks as needed to cover business expenses.

U.S. Magistrate Jon Scoles released Meeks with special conditions, including she can't go into casinos and must undergo a mental health evaluation and any treatment recommended, pending trial. A trial date hasn't been set.

Bart Woods, owner of Primus, reported the suspected theft to authorities in November 2014 after an employee with Hills Bank called him about suspicious checks being deposited into Meeks' account, the complaint states. The checks from Primus were unusual because they were made payable to Meeks and signed and endorsed by her.

Woods started an internal audit and found Meeks had written 'hundreds” of checks from various business accounts to herself, the complaint states. In reviewing the ledgers, Woods found that Meeks 'disguised” the checks she wrote to herself in the ledger, making them payable to various Primus vendors.

The complaint states Meeks wrote checks to herself from three separate business checking accounts at three different banks. Woods initially told investigators it was $381,211, but authorities found additional fraudulent checks and charges on a business gas credit card, raising the loss to $392,872.

Meeks has repaid Woods $12,891 since the fraud was discovered, authorities said. She also sent a text and email to Woods apologizing to him and saying she would try to repay him.