An FBI investigation revealed that between August 2005 and January 2013, Turey wrote “cheques to himself or to a fictitious entity for his personal benefit and deposit[ed] those funds into bank accounts he controlled”. He concealed the scheme by making “numerous false entries in the company’s books and records”.

As RTI’s controller, Turey was responsible for aggregating the company’s monthly revenue and expense results, managing accounts receivable, performing financial analysis and reporting, and overseeing the company’s bookkeeper. Turey also was responsible for the company’s general ledger and was in charge of conducting the company’s bank reconciliations. He worked for RTI for 17 years.

Turey is scheduled to be sentenced on 20 August. The 64-year-old of Norwalk faces a maximum term of 20 years imprisonment. He has been released on a $300,000 bond since his arrest in February.

RTI was founded in 1979 by Mel Rothstein and Richard Tauber. It placed 48th on last year’s Honomichl Top 50 ranking of US research companies with $16.6m in annual revenue.