Man who stole from Kent company receives 18-month sentence

A federal judge sentenced a man to 18 months in prison for wire fraud for his scheme to steal nearly $1 million from his Kent employer where he worked as an information technology (IT) manager.

Paul Joseph Welch, 44, was sentenced Feb. 5 in U.S. District Court in Seattle, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. He was the IT manager at Algas-SDI, a Kent energy manufacturing company, where he stole more than $950,000 from the business.

“This was not a crime of desperation,” U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead said at the sentencing. “You used the funds to support a lifestyle you could not afford.”

Welch, a former Laguna Niguel, California resident, pleaded guilty in May 2025 to wire fraud.

“Mr. Welch stole nearly $1 million from his company to pay for luxuries such as expensive hotel stays, first class airline tickets, and even a Porsche for his wife as a Mother’s Day gift,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd. “His theft caused the company to cut staff, reduce or cancel bonuses, and delay projects. These impacts justify this prison term.”

According to records in the case, Welch worked for the company from 2011 to 2024. He was promoted to IT manager in 2018. As early as 2017, Welch used the company’s Amazon business account to make unauthorized personal purchases from Amazon.com.

Between 2017 and 2023, those purchases totaled at least $43,000. Welch primarily purchased electronics such as televisions, laptops and more—all for personal use. In 2019, Welch began using his company credit card for personal purchases through other online retailers such as Apple, Alaska Airlines, Instacart and BestBuy. Between 2019 and 2024, those unauthorized personal purchases totaled at least an additional $60,000.

The scheme really accelerated in January 2021 when Welch began making payments to himself disguised as payments to a computer services company, according to court documents. Welch created a series of email addresses and payment processor accounts using a business name that was very similar to a legitimate computer services company based in Washington state.

Welch then used the company credit cards to pay the computer services company under the guise that the company was providing IT equipment and services to the victim company. However, the legitimate computer services company had no relationship with Welch and never provided any services or equipment to the Kent company. The credit card payments Welch made went directly to the payment processor accounts that Welch controlled. Between 2021 and 2024 Welch used this scheme to transfer approximately $879,175 from company accounts to his own accounts, according to court records.

Algas-SDI tried to verify the legitimacy of Welch’s activity on multiple occasions, but each time, Welch provided false or misleading information to cover up his scheme, according to court documents. When Welch was asked to submit invoices to substantiate his charges, he emailed phony documents designed to look like invoices from the legitimate computer services company.

At one point in 2023, an accounting employee at the Kent company identified personal purchases on Welch’s company credit card. Welch claimed the charges were inadvertent and said he would repay the company. Welch never repaid the charges and continued to defraud the company through unauthorized personal purchases and more fake vendor charges.

On Jan. 19, 2024, Algas-SDI employees confronted Welch about the charges from the computer services company accounts that Welch controlled. After Welch again claimed that the vendor was a real vendor for the company, the company fired him.

In all, between 2017 and January 2024 Welch secretly made at least 250 fraudulent charges for the third-party vendor he controlled, according to court records. He made at least 140 unauthorized purchases with retailers using the Algas-SDI credit card and at least 100 fraudulent purchases on the company’s Amazon account. While Welch profited some $950,000 from his theft, the loss to Algas-SDI was approximately $982,520 due to various fees on the transactions.

“As an information technology manager, Mr. Welch held a position of trust with his employer which allowed him access to business accounts and the company credit card,” said W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “Welch betrayed that trust by stealing almost $1 million from the company through years of fraudulent transactions for his own personal gain. Despite being confronted about his illicit expenditures multiple times, Welch disguised his schemes with false documents or by saying he didn’t intend to make the charges. When such theft occurs, the FBI diligently follows the money to ensure fraudsters are held accountable for their crimes.”

Welch agreed to make full restitution to the company, according to the DOJ.