Former Asst. Fire Chief Pleads Guilty In Embezzlement Case

THE FORMER ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF of South King (Washington) Fire & Rescue pleaded guilty to a charge of embezzlement from his fire department.

Grant G. Gaspard, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He agreed with accusations that he used phony invoices and a fake company in an elaborate plot to steal money, and misused his district-issued credit card.  Gaspard was arrested and charged on August 7 with three counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He’d resigned the week before.  Firegeezer had the full report of the activity and arrest HERE.

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Grant Gaspard

Gaspard is taking responsibility for his crimes and pleaded to the sole charge to settle the case and will be paying restitution for the more than half-million dollars that he stole. 

In an affidavit written by an agent with the FBI, Gaspard obtained about $330,000 from the department by approving purchase orders for nonexistent communications equipment from a company called Atwrx.

The payments were mailed to a private mailbox rented by Gaspard at a UPS store in Tumwater, and most of the checks were deposited into a bank account controlled by Gaspard.

In addition to the fake orders, investigators say Gaspard purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of personal property with his department credit card and submitted falsified expense reports.  His purchases allegedly included:

- Sony Blu-Ray player
- 60-inch Sony high-definition television
- Rifle scope
- Nikon D2X digital camera
- Nikon D3 digital camera
- Nikon D300 digital camera
- Thousands of dollars worth of camera lenses, memory cards and accessories
- High-end Apple desktop computer
- Two Apple MacBook laptop computers
- Apple MacMini computer
- Computer scanner
- Diesel generator
- Gun safe
- Sony HD camcorder
- Mackie speakers
- Computer hard drives
- Computer software
- Towing equipment and other truck parts
- Two TiVo video recorders

Gaspard will be sentenced on January 30 and will likely receive a prison term of 3 to 4 years.

The Tacoma News Tribune has this latest STORY.