KENT, Wash. — This story was originally published on mynorthwest.com.
The former IT manager for a Kent energy manufacturing company pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington Friday, 43-year-old Paul Joseph Welch admitted to stealing around $1 million from Algas-SDI.
The attorney’s office stated Welch worked at the company from 2011 to 2024 and used the company’s Amazon business account to make unauthorized personal purchases from Amazon.com, such as televisions and laptops—totaling at least $43,000.
He then began using the company credit card for personal purchases through other online retailers such as Apple, Alaska Airlines, Instacart, and BestBuy—totaling around $60,000.
However, the attorney’s office said the scheme accelerated in January 2021 when Welch started making payments to himself, disguised as payments to a computer services company, using the scheme to transfer around $879,175 from company accounts to himself.
The news release states in January 2024, Algas-SDI employees confronted Welch about the charges from the computer services accounts he controlled. Welch told the employees that the vendor was real, leading the company to fire him.
Welch is scheduled to be sentenced on August 21, 2025.
©2025 Cox Media Group
