The owner of a Norman pool construction company pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges this week in Cleveland County District Court.
Stephen Edgar Cook, 42, was criminally charged after customers began complaining to authorities that they had paid Cook's company, Cabanas Plus ExoticPoolscapes, for pool installation that was never completed. Customers say that they paid as much as $100,000 to Cook, who then never completed thework. Instead, he continued to ask for payments to continue work on the project, and even told one customer he needed the money because an employeewas embezzling from him. He was charged with embezzling approximately $300,000 from five customers. The payments he received for pool constructionwere instead used to fund Cook's alcohol and drug problem, according to an affidavit.
On Monday, Cook pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including five counts of embezzlement and one count of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses.A Cleveland County judge sentenced him to 25 years of probation. He is also ordered to pay an additional $269,000 in restitution; he has already paid$39,000 in restitution.
Cook has prior felony record related to a substance abuse problem. In 1997, he was charged in Cleveland County of manufacturing a CDS and maintaining adwelling house used to keep or sell a controlled substance. The drug manufacture charge was amended to drug possession, and he pleaded guilty to bothcharges. He was sentenced to 12 years for drug possession with all but the first 60 days suspended. He was also given a 5 year suspended sentence onthe second charge, which ran concurrently with the first count.
In 2002, he was convicted of meth possession in Oklahoma County and sentenced to 5 years, with all but the first 120 days suspended. That sentence ranconcurrently with the Cleveland County sentence.
In 2012, Cook was charged with writing a bogus check, but that case was dismissed with costs at the request of the prosecution.
Embezzlement, or misappropriating funds from their intended use, often has addiction at its root, whether that addiction is drugs, alcohol, gambling, shopping,or some other compulsion. Often, a person who "borrows" company funds, customer payments, or employers' assets intends to repay them before the moneyor property is ever noticed to be missing. However, intent to repay is not a mitigating factor in embezzlement, and often, the act grows exponentiallyuntil the person who does the embezzling becomes unable to ever repay the missing funds.
If you are accused of embezzlement, a situation has likely spiraled beyond your control. Talk to an Oklahoma white collar crimes lawyer to explore youroptions for defense.
