11-13-13 bonduel man charged in fdl county circuit court with 85 counts of theft

A Bonduel man is accused of stealing more than $100,000  from two businesses and an individual  in Fond du lac County.    Thirty year old Christopher Gustavus is charged with 85 misdemeanor theft counts and one felony count of identity theft for financial gain.  According to a criminal complaint

Gustavus is accused of using a company credit card and a PayPal account to transfer funds out of a computer service he worked for to purchase several items including furniture and electronics  equipment.   The complaint says the fraudulent purchases included more than $7000 in Best Buy transactions and $502.61 from the Gilles Frozen Custard account.  Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Cameron McGee says the alleged thefts occurred between August 2011 and April 30^th of this year.  "Identity thieves and embezzlement cases, they figure out a way to divert funds,"  Mcgee told WFDL news.  "When they figure out this way to divert funds they have a tendency to stick their toes in the water to see how much they can get away with without being discovered."  McGee says after a period of time the perpetrator starts diverting funds to themselves to buy whatever they want.   McGee says the dollar amount of the fraudulent transactions total more than $114,000.