Former 'USA Today' Exec Gets 12 Years in Jail

Posted Wednesday, January 14, 2004 12:00 am

By: E&P Staff Wade Beck, the one-time comptroller of USA Today's office in Lombard, Ill., who was convicted of embezzling $3.6 million from the publication, was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison.

Beck was ordered by DuPage County Judge Robert Anderson to repay the money over a five-year period after being released, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Prosecutors charge that Beck, from 1994 to 2001, wrote more than 850 checks to fictitious vendors and then pocketed the money.

The Gannett-owned newspaper contacted authorities after beginning an internal investigation in 2001. In June, Beck pleaded guilty to felony theft.

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Former 'USA Today' Exec Gets 12 Years in Jail

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