YORK COUNTY — A 63-year-old York County financial planner has been accused of embezzling more than $1 million of his clients’ money through his business.
Raymond Oliver Kraft Jr., owner of WiseKraft Solutions, “knowingly and willfully devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises,” according to a federal indictment filed July 25 in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg.
According to the indictment, Kraft took money from seven people and two trusts for investments, but used the money for other purposes instead.
Kraft’s trial is set for Oct. 9, according to the York Daily Record.
According to the indictment, Kraft allegedly embezzled the money between 2011 and February. The indictment accuses him of several misappropriations of money, including the transfer of $66,000 from an account to his company’s business account between July and August of 2014. He then used the money for ATM withdrawals, credit card payments, checks made out to himself, and payments for his company’s operating costs.
In 2016, the indictment states, Kraft received a check to one of his clients for more than $80,000 for the sale of a piece of furniture. The client asked Kraft to invest the funds, but Kraft allegedly deposited the check into his business account instead. He then used the funds to issue money to himself, other clients, and the company’s payroll.
The client was not aware of the payments, and did not authorize them, the indictment says.
