Published: August 17, 2009 11:50 pm      

Edmond man disputes embezzlement charge

EDMOND — A 54-year-old Edmond man arrested on a $150,000 warrant out of Kingfisher County faces a court date in an alleged embezzlement scheme involving bonus money from a Hennessey company, police said.

David Patrick Lannan, 54, of Edmond, faces an Aug. 26 initial court appearance on one count of embezzling $28,000 from the Tuscany Operating Company, which has a Hennessey mailing address.

If convicted, Lannan faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine not to exceed $10,000 and restitution, according to court documents.

Lannan, reached by phone at home Monday, said that if the case gets to the arraignment stage he will plead not guilty.

“I’m innocent of the charges,” Lannan said.

The Kingfisher County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the case at this time.

On Saturday, Edmond Police were driving to the suspect’s home at 7200 E. Covell Road in an attempt to serve the warrant, according to a report filed by Edmond Officer Chad Brown.

While the officer was on the way to the home, he passed the suspect, who was traveling westbound on Covell in a Chevy pickup, the officer wrote in his narrative. The officer stopped the suspect, arrested him on the felony warrant and transported him to the city jail.

In December 2006, Lannan was chief financial officer of Tuscany Operating Company and was to be awarded an employee bonus of $8,000, according to the Kingfisher County affidavit of probable cause, filed on Aug. 10. All bonuses were to come from a specific account at a Tulsa bank.

On Dec. 19, 2006, Lannan paid himself a bonus of $36,000 — $28,000 in excess of what he was to be awarded — from a different account at the bank, prosecutors allege.

In November 1998 in Maricopa County, Ariz., Superior Court, Lannan was convicted on one count of fraudulent schemes, a felony, and on one count of theft, a felony, according to county court records.



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