Larabee accused of taking over $186k

A lengthy investigation by the OSBI has led to the filing of two charges of embezzlement against an Okmulgee resident.

District Attorney Carol Iski filed CF-2023-29 in Okmulgee County District Court Feb. 23 against Richard Preston Larabee, 37. A warrant for $50,000 was issued for his arrest that day and he was taken into custody at the Okmulgee County Jail, but was bailed out a short time later.

Count 1 accuses Larabee of fraudulently taking a total of $152,144.67 belonging to the Mc-Culloch Building Owners, LLC (MBO), from April 3, 2019 through Feb. 28, 2022.

Count 2 states that between April 3, 2019, and Feb. 28, 2022, Larabee took $34,399.32 that belonged to the Agape Pregnancy Center while he served as treasurer for the organization.

According to the court documents, the charges stemmed from a request made to the OSBI exactly one year ago to investigate allegations of embezzlement by Larabee while he was employed by MBO as building manager of the property from April 1, 2019, through Feb. 15, 2022.

Larabee as “property manager” was compensated for his service as such, according to the records, but also had access to the financial accounts associated with MBO from several banks. “Those accounts included lines of credit, checks, ATM cards and other methods to use the finances of the business,” with some of those things unknown to the owners which came to light once the investigation into missing funds was started.

When asked to provide banking statements to better understand the business, the reports provided were either incomplete or missing information, and bank statements given appeared to have been recreated by Larabee, the court document stated.

Larabee allegedly told the owners he had submitted an application to a bank for a loan to purchase the McCulloch Building for $500,000. However, that was determined not to be true after several months went by and no purchase was made.

In Feb. 2022, a cutoff notice was received from PSO, and the owners learned $5,500 was due on the account. An investigation into various transactions resulted in over $152,000 being unaccounted for, the record stated.

In addition, it is alleged that some tenants of the building were required to make cash payments for renting space. Also, a space on the 6th floor of the building was being rented out for events; however, Larabee is accused of ‘pocketing the money.’

In the second case, Larabee is accused of taking $34,399.22 from the non-profit organization known as Agape Pregnancy Center in Okmulgee, on which he served on the board of directors.

On April 5, 2022, the OSBI was requested to investigate those allegations. Numerous unau- thorized transactions were made from a bank between June 2021 and Feb. 2022, which Larabee had direct access due to his position as chairman.

According to the court record, a withdrawal of $4,000 was made on Feb. 25, 2022; however, when Larabee was asked about the withdrawal by the board, no explanation was given as to why it was taken, but those funds were then returned to Agape Pregnancy Center by Larabee’s wife.

Larabee made his initial appearance in Okmulgee County district court on Feb. 24. His next scheduled appearance is March 23.

Larabee served on the Okmulgee City Council and as mayor, but resigned from the position in March 2022.