21 June 2007

Dear Family,
This letter is agonizing to write, but I need to prepare the family for a very unfortunate
situation. Disturbing information about theft and betrayal will soon become public at trial
and it's going to be very hard on many people I love. The scale of this information is
massive as are the crimes that were committed. As such, this letter is going to be very
long. I apologize for that in advance. Nonetheless, the family deserves to know, and I
would prefer you hear this information from me rather than reading it in the newspaper for
the first time.
For many years, I have tried to deal with this in quiet dignity behind-the-scenes. It has
taken years of research and discovery to piece together the information, and it is shocking.
The scale of the lies, manipulation and cover-up are enormous. But I've always felt secrets
are terrible things. Like a cancer, their destructive power grows unabated until they
destroy. In contrast, the truth is precious even when it's difficult to face.
As many of you know, my sister Teri has cancer. And it breaks my heart. You may also
know that her husband Rick worked for Decipher years ago. In 2001, we discovered Rick
had embezzled money from the company, and in the intervening years, more and more
information has come to the surface about those crimes.
After six years, we have now come into possession of documents that expose details Rick
covered up from Decipher and the family all this time. If we had not filed a civil suit
against him, these documents would have remained hidden forever. Through
interrogatories and discovery, we received copies of "some" of Rick’s bank records and tax
returns. In the last few months, we have tracked stolen funds to Rick's personal bank
accounts. We have discovered at least five personal bank accounts (one in Rick's name
alone), and there are probably more. During this process, we also discovered over a
million dollars in income tax evasion.
For a period of nine years while employed at Decipher Inc. Rick secretly committed
thousands of acts of embezzlement, forgery, computer fraud, credit card fraud, equipment
theft, income tax evasion, failure of fiduciary duties to trusts set up for my nieces when I
started the company, the unauthorized procurement of company loans and equipment,
grand larceny, criminally receiving goods and services fraudulently, money laundering,
failure to file accurate expense reports, conspiracy, submission of false financial

 statements and financial reports to management and financial institutions, wire fraud, the
intentional mismanagement of company assets, and a cover-up that included a vast web of
overt lies to employees, management, and family members. Rick started stealing covertly
in 1993, only one month after I gave him the authority to sign company checks. Every
time we go back into the records, we find additional crimes that were covered up. It's too
immense to imagine.
To date, Decipher has discovered $392,435.01 in check fraud; $439,940.89 in credit card
fraud; $41,188.21 for embezzlement checks in Teri's name (which we believe Rick forged
without Teri’s knowledge); $209,317.72 in trust fraud; $4,723,732.23 in covert
mismanagement and other clandestine activities (including computer fraud),
$1,008,093.70 in salary and bonuses paid to Rick during the period when he was stealing
and covering up his crimes, and much more. Just with what we know (and we will never
know it all), Rick stole millions directly. In addition, he covertly expended millions in
company assets in an effort to bankrupt Decipher and thus conceal his crimes. A year or
two after the discovery of this cover-up, Decipher wrote off $8,958,984.00 as a direct
result of Rick’s actions. Since that time, we have uncovered more.
A few weeks ago, I privately gave Rick the opportunity to settle the civil case out-of-court
in an effort to prevent Teri from having to endure depositions or his civil trial while she is
bravely undergoing chemotherapy. Teri's condition is especially hard on my parents
because my brother-in-law has driven a wedge between family members with lies and
manipulation. In a letter to Rick, I stated:
While I firmly believe you should be punished for your crimes, my sister’s health
has become an extenuating factor for me. I don’t think Teri should be forced to
endure depositions or suffer the pain of hearing evidence in a civil court that you
stole funds in her name, forged her signature, and put her at risk of going to jail.
Your decision to file joint tax returns that did not report over a million dollars in
stolen funds made Teri an unwitting participant and put her at great personal risk.
The idea that Teri might have to endure depositions, testimony and a trial while
undergoing chemotherapy is untenable to me. Since crimes were committed in her
name, she has to be deposed if this trial moves forward.
For my sister’s sake, not yours, I am willing to make a settlement offer to set aside
the pending civil action. The terms of settlement require you to come clean about
the level of your betrayal, accept responsibility for your actions, and agree to pay
restitution. With what we know today, I would never offer you a settlement of any
kind were it not for Teri's condition.
It's up to you how hard you make this on Teri. All of the information on your
criminal activities and much more about your deceit and manipulation will be
exposed at the public trial. Therefore, I make this offer to protect my sister.

 If you disagree with any word or phrase in this settlement offer and present
evidence to Bradley Reaves (Decipher's attorney) to the contrary, we will negotiate
changing that word or phrase.
I gave Rick the opportunity to admit that: (1) he acted alone, without Teri's knowledge or
consent when he wrote embezzlement checks payable to her; (2) he forged her signature;
(3) Teri did not assist him in any way; and (4) Teri was unaware of his crimes when she
signed joint Federal and State income tax returns. He refused. I also offered to settle the
case for 20% of what Rick’s actions directly cost the company. A condition of settlement,
however, was that Rick tell the truth. This would force him to admit to his wife and
children what he had done. Instead, Rick chose to try to protect himself at their expense.
To prevent depositions while Teri is sick, Decipher initiated an extension of the case. Rick,
on the other hand, did nothing to protect her.
So, before this information becomes public, I'm going to disclose to the family the
unfortunate character of Rick Eddleman. What I offer is candor and sincerity. These details
will be revealed at trial, but here's a condensed version of literally thousands of
unspeakable acts of betrayal committed by a man we all trusted.
While I'll add to the details later, in early 2001, Decipher initially discovered about
$120,000 in theft by Rick. Rick told us (and my parents) that he didn't know why he had
“borrowed” the money, but that he had documented everything and intended to pay it
back. While we were shocked by the discovery of this covert behavior, we could only
surmise at the time that Rick was under intense pressure. Out of concern for Rick’s mental
and physical safety, Decipher allowed him to resign, paid him severance, and offered to
pay for therapy. Still, we confronted him and asked the most obvious question, "Is this
all?" Rick said, "Yes. That's everything."
He lied. $120,000 was barely 1% of his crimes.
He was covering up millions and millions of dollars in criminal acts. No one but Rick
knew this at the time, but he had been stealing for nine years. It was grand larceny on a
grand scale. Determined to hide this, Rick continued the lies and manipulation he had been
carrying out for so long. In the initial stage of discovery, Rick told his family he had
"borrowed” money from Decipher and "intended to pay it back." Rick sold an office
building that my parents had given to him and his children years before. He used $15,000
from Rickell, $15,000 from Brielle, and $15,000 from his and Teri's proceeds, and paid
$45,000 to Decipher. A few days later, he paid $2,500. We now know this behavior was
calculated to deceive his wife and children into thinking that he was going to pay back
what he said he had "borrowed." These were the last and only payments Rick would ever
make. In the intervening six years, he hasn't paid a dime.
Within a few months of the "tip of the iceberg" discovery, it was clear the scale of his
crimes was many hundreds of thousands of dollars more than he led us to believe. Within
two years, it was clear it was in the millions. Rick had covered up everything in dozens
and dozens of calculated and elaborate schemes. Stealing from Decipher wasn't just

 stealing from me. My parents owned 13% of the stock. Cindy Thornburg, the company
president, owned 10% of the stock. I had set up a trust for each of my nieces when I
formed the company in 1983, long before we ever made any money, that gave Rickell and
Brielle each 5% of the company’s stock.
What kind of man steals from his own children and then lies to them? The pathology of
embezzlement is quite common, unfortunately. So are phenomena like “betrayal bonding”
and the Stockholm syndrome where the victims and family members of criminals rush to
the defense of the person who is manipulating them. It's human nature to take up for the
ones we believe love us, even when they are abusing us. However, it's only the mask that
is seen, not the surreptitious manipulation and malicious intent behind it.
Before I get to some of the narrative of what we have discovered and will present at trial,
first let me provide a small sampling of Rick's credit card fraud at Decipher that began in
1995, the first year the company issued cards to employees. As vice-president of finance
and information technology officer, Rick was responsible for reviewing and auditing
employees' charges and expense reports. Thus, he could veil his own. In cloak-and-dagger
fashion, he did. I emphasize that this is a very small sample. There are far too many to list
them all here. Nonetheless, it's a glimpse behind the mask of the man.
1995: Rick stole over $101,000 that year from this ONE method of embezzlement
alone. Examples include:
Sofas Etc.
$1,200.00
Sports Authority
$389.41
Murrays Fly Shop
$660.81
Hecht's
$421.57
Best Western-Radford
$141.86
Radford University Bookstore
$664.14
Budget Rent A Car
$260.79
Barnes & Noble
$210.16
Best Western-Radford
$145.70
Sprint Cellular
$413.46
Circuit City
$6,038.18
Haynes Furniture
$1,118.15
Ritz Camera
$342.58
Military Circle Gift
$659.70
Rigorno Sunglass
$218.38
Reed Jewelers
$825.80
etc.
1996: Rick stole over $68,000 in credit card embezzlements including such things as:
Seashore Hobby Bike Shop
$325.88
Nada Chair
$200.26
Mai Ab Roller
$27.25
Abercrombie
$103.55
Men & Mice
$530.00

 Seashore Hobby Bike Shop
Conte's Bike & Fitness
Making Money/Health Tec
Hall Honda-Va Beach
Beecroft & Bull
Radford University Bookstore
Barnes & Noble
Hecht's-Va Beach
Ticketmaster
etc.

$390.62
$1,039.34
$1,995.00
$2,982.27
$177.91
$541.33
$644.43
$742.98
$321.05

1997: Rick stole over $107,000 in credit card embezzlements including such things as:
Leggett
$715.69
Ritz Camera
$1,736.54
Suncoast Video
$328.92
Circuit City
$541.31
Levin's Brass Beds
$1,522.32
Beecroft & Bull LTD
$1,533.54
1-800-Flowers
$83.98
Frederick's of Hollywood
$142.45
Trade Your Way To Riches
$289.60
Home Quarters
$190.35
Best Western Radford
$155.86
Radford University
$189.70
Frank Gruber MD
$375.00
LCT Fine Jewelers
$458.96
Decorum furniture
$1,250.00
The Atlantic Sands Hotel - Rehoboth $400.14
Experienceplus
$3,800.00
Newcastle Motel - Virginia Beach
177.00
Jake Seafood House-Rehoboth
$54.90
Chick's Oyster Bar
$112.65
Alleghany Inn-Radford
$85.40
Lynnhaven Fish House
$125.64
etc.
1998: Rick stole over $67,000 in credit card embezzlements including such things as:
Advanced Answers for Skin
$67.93
Bed Bath & Beyond
$55.14
BJ's Wholesale
$142.56
Store of Knowledge
$125.30
Dive Quarters
$225.55
Planet Music
$100.00
Lynnhaven Dive Center
$667.39
Classic Custom Vacations
$2,441.97
Godiva Choclatier
$95.28

 Henry's Raw Bar-Va Beach
Costal Grill
Gap
UNC Bookstore-NC
Marina Shores LTD
Midwest Center for Stress
Lifestyle Homedesign
Honey Bee Golf Club
Skymall Airline Catalog
etc.

$240.74
$214.32
$98.20
$370.83
$132.65
$391.80
$2,556.50
$84.00
$332.36

1999: Rick stole over $72,000 in credit card embezzlements including such things as:
Hall Auto Mall
$630.30
Lifestyle Homedesign
$2,556.50
Geoffrey Beene
$365.39
Saks Fifth Avenue
$134.81
Suncoast Video
$124.28
Blue Ridge Mountain Sports
$252.89
Fine Jewelers
$282.15
Planet Music
$213.57
The Bombay Co.
$135.59
Banana Republic
$792.58
AAA Tidewater membership
$133.00
800-Send-FTD Lfower
$90.05
800-Send-FTD Lfower
$85.62
THA*Bioslim
$30.93
Genesis Media Group
$1,695.00
Williams Sonoma
$484.88
Fanigs Footwear
$652.50
Honey Bee Golf
$1,035.00
Nordstrom
$462.86
Hotel Moon Palace
$205.04
GTE Mobile
$208.90
Decorum
$4,172.61
Patient Choice Inc.
$148.00
The Rowe Showplace-Va Beach
$814.00
Chef Maxwell's Restaurant
$257.81
Edwin Watts Golf Shops
$585.17
Lenscrafter's
$315.65
Peoples Pottery
$376.20
etc.
2000: Rick stole over $69,000 in credit card embezzlements including such things as:
Nordstrom
$820.33
Tidewater Galleries
$2,502.78
FTD.com
$128.98

 Delta Air - T Eddleman
The Atlantic Sands Hotel
One Fish Two Fish-Va Beach
Foons Rest-Va Beach
Britt Worldwide
Baywood Greens
Polo Factory Store
Pro Step Inc
Diamond Men's Wear
Pargo's-Va Beach
Y Not Pizza
Chili's Restaurant-Va Beach
Max & Erma's
Lone Star Steakhouse
Wyndham Myrtle Beach Resort
Franklin Covey
Atlas Diner
Silver Diner-Va Beach
Denny's
Lord & Taylor Layettes
etc.

$614.00
$583.20
$131.08
$63.63
$155.00
$204.00
$269.99
$314.00
$916.90
$68.37
$45.95
$74.79
$42.55
$204.12
$141.92
$196.99
$52.84
$60.14
$26.25
$84.17

2001: (Rick worked two months in 2001 before the tip of the iceberg of his crimes
started to come to light. In those two months, he stole $11,640.98 through this method
alone) including such things as:
Davinci Toys
$74.14
Hecht's Gadgets
$201.66
Old Navy
$150.00
Kroger
$41.95
Zia Maria-Va Beach
$223.25
Cracker Barrel
$71.69
Holiday Inn Coliseum
$189.00
The Bistro-Va Beach
$218.04
David Nygaard Fine Jewelers
$2,037.75
Lynnhaven Fish House-Va Beach
$168.32
etc.
As one example, when everyone else in the company was conserving money in 2001, Rick
covertly bought Teri an expensive piece of jewelry for Valentine's Day paid for with stolen
funds from Decipher. That's the charge listed above from David Nygaard Fine Jewelers for
$2,037.75. As you can see from this small excerpt, most of the purchases were daily
occurrences. It was premeditated theft on an enormous scale. I'll explain how he got away
with this a bit later, but remember we initially only knew of $120,000, and Rick told us,
"Yes. That's everything."

 To put Rick's criminal activity into perspective... to give you a "sense" of what Rick did
and will do to steal and conceal... I need to relate a few stories throughout this letter. The
extent of the deeds makes it difficult to start. So, I'm going to begin with a story that
defines his character. It's shocking:
In 1999, on the morning of my beautiful niece Rickell's wedding, a golf outing was
organized for about twenty people. Those in attendance included the groom (Matt),
Uncle Bo (the Baptist minister presiding over the nuptials that day), Rick and
others. I did not go.
One day when I was showing Uncle Bo a spreadsheet of credit card fraud listing
some things Rick had embezzled, Uncle Bo pointed to one of the charges and said,
"I know what that is!" He proceeded to tell me the story of how, outside of the
clubhouse, Rick had taken up a cash collection from the participants, approaching
$1,000, and Rick paid the green fees. Everyone then played golf and came back for
the wedding. In reality, what Rick had done was paid the bill of $1,035 with his
Decipher credit card (embezzling the funds), and he kept everyone else's cash. Rick
stole from his soon to be son-in-law, a Baptist minister, Decipher and others on the
day of his daughter's wedding!
Another example...
In September 1997, Rick, Teri, and Rick’s sister Kathy (also a Decipher employee
at the time) took a bike trip in Italy. They gushed with joy about the experience.
Rick covertly paid for the $4,300 trip by embezzling the funds from Decipher via
credit card. I have no reason to believe that Teri had any knowledge of how the trip
was funded, but given Rick's refusal to say that she was not involved, this is one of
the many questions the lawyers must now ask her in preparation for the civil trial.
In July 1998, Rick and Kathy booked a trip for three with the same travel company
(Experienceplus) to Provence, France. They charged the $6,135 final payment on
Kathy's Decipher credit card and again embezzled the funds. A month later, they
canceled the trip, got Experienceplus to issue a refund check in the names of Rick,
Teri, & Kathy Eddleman, and they cashed the check and kept the money. I assume
Teri's signature was forged, but here's the refund check supplied to us by
Experienceplus:

 Under Virginia law the above crimes are felonies: Embezzlement deemed larceny
(§18.2-111), criminally receiving goods and services fraudulently obtained
(§18.2-197) and Money Laundering (§18.2-246.3), among others.
Another example...
We have discovered records of nearly every Christmas present, about $10,000 a
year, Rick gave to his family at least between 1995 and 2000. They were all
clandestinely paid for with stolen funds from Decipher. Imagine what must go
through a man's mind when, year after year, Christmas presents are opened to
gleeful and appreciative eyes and Rick alone, behind the mask of generosity, knows
the gifts were all stolen.
Another example...
The year Rick started with Decipher, his construction company, Eastman, had gone
out of business and Rick had filed for personal bankruptcy. Rick told me how much
he loved working with computers. When Eastman's bankruptcy occurred, Decipher
was in a growth phase. I offered Rick a job to help him and his family through a
very rough time. But also because Decipher was a family business in many respects
and the trust one has in a close family member is unquestioned.
Rick spoke of the struggles at the end of Eastman and how the banks were
unsupportive and put him out of business. In the course of many tales, he

 mentioned that he had a $20,000 tax bill due. That Christmas, I gave $10,000 to
Rick and $10,000 to Teri. I told them both that I wanted Rick to be able to pay the
tax lien, start at Decipher with a clean slate, and not have to worry about the
weight of past adversities encroaching on the future.
Our lawyers later learned from IRS contacts, and we learned from former business
associates of Rick's, that he didn't pay the Eastman taxes in question... his former
partner did. But, Rick kept the $20,000 I gave them and never told anyone the
truth.
That same December, Rick was given the position of vice-president of Finance in
Decipher. Rick spoke of his joy in working on our computer challenges and he
mentioned how grateful he was to be at Decipher where things were positive. He
started stealing from the company less than 30 days later.
How could he get away with it? It's amazingly simple in hindsight: We totally and
completely trusted him.
The company was enormously profitable, making millions of dollars a year, and it was
very easy for Rick to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time. No one... not
management, not our accountant, not our vendors, not our lawyer, not my parents, not
Rick's family, and not anyone else could imagine Rick was committing such crimes for all
nine years he was employed. And yet, he did... day after day.
Another way Rick got away with it was manipulating his own accounting staff.
Over time, through many tricks, Rick implied to some of his staff that the reason
they had jobs was because he shielded them from Cindy and me. In other words,
Rick was the hero and we were the bad guys. Once he had built this psychological
wall of protection, Rick told Becky, our controller, that I had given him the right to
borrow money from the company. It was a lie, I had not. Rick had already been
stealing for two years with checks and he saw this as an opening to steal more by
betraying another trust.
He constructed a web of lies so our controller would not catch his planned credit
card theft. Once the cards were issued to everyone in the company, it was Rick's
job to review and audit the expenses. He immediately started using his own
company card for personal items and marked some (a few of them) as loans so
Becky wouldn't question the charges. Some of these purchases were recorded in a
"suspense" account. It's a holding account until the funds are cleared with a
repayment. Thus, Rick projected the appearance of honesty to his subordinates. It
was all an act perpetrated as follows:
When the suspense account would get to $50,000 or so (small enough that it would
not be material to our outside accountants), Rick would sometimes show Becky a
personal check in that amount as if he were making a deposit to pay it back. That

 night when Rick was working late (because Decipher was working him so hard, he
told my father repeatedly), Rick would destroy the personal check (never to touch
his bank accounts as we now know) and write-off the suspense account illicitly in
small amounts to nearly every general ledger account in the company.... spreading
the theft through the entire financial statement and thus only changing numbers in
each category by a small fraction of a percent. It was totally undetectable in this
form and yet massive amounts of money could be stolen. The next day, the suspense
account would be zero again, and our controller and other workers in accounting
believed Rick had repaid his "personal" charges. Since Rick also did the bank
reconciliations, no one on his staff saw that it was all a lie.
One former accounting employee was suspicious of Rick. Rick created stories in
the management meetings about her "poor performance" that ultimately led us to
supporting him in firing her. In a telephone interview I had with her years later she
said to me, "I suspected Rick was skimming. There were rumors, but he was your
brother-in-law so I never said anything. Besides, he told us what bad people you
and Cindy were. When I was fired, I just left quietly."
I'm pretty sure my sister didn't know either. But, Rick was stealing in her name...
In 1993, 1994, and 1995 Teri also worked at Decipher. In 1993, for example, Rick stole
over $37,000 via checks and forgery, and hid those checks by writing them off in the
computer system to various accounts in the General Ledger. By stealing in Teri’s name,
Rick implicated her. Under Virginia law, these methods of theft represent five different
kinds of felonies: Embezzlement and fraudulent conversion (§18.2-111), Fraudulent
entries (§18.2-113), Computer fraud (§18.2-152.3), Forgery (§18.2-172), and Obtaining
money or signature by false pretense (§18.2-178).
In 1994, the above methods were used by Rick to steal over $93,000 (with just over
$17,000 stolen in Teri's name). For example, the following spreadsheet details one method
of embezzlement (that of writing triple or quadruple payroll checks). Decipher's payroll
was twice a month. Every month in green has three or four checks, and every check
marked in yellow below is an embezzlement. The evidence is irrefutable: we have now
traced these stolen funds directly to a personal joint bank account in Rick and Teri’s name.
There are many, many more, but they would overwhelm you if you are not already
overwhelmed.
The ones in Rick's name are much, much larger, but let's look at just 1994 and just the
checks in Teri's name to give you a sample.

  

Date (led-z: Payee Arm: unt
1313-394 13-?15 Teri E-rl-rlleman [Fayre-ll 5544.05
131-1394 13-514 Teri E-d-dlernan Fayre-ll 5544.39
1314394 1.3995 Teri Eddleman Fayre-ll 5544.39
13175394 13-95-51- 1ieri E-rldleman Fayre-ll 5544.39
Rid: didn't supply requested hank slatemenl: fur arrive mm?'rs.

3315394 14435.]- Teri Fayre-ll 5544.39
3315394 1417?1 Teri EdeerrIaIl Emhezzlement 5544.39
3-33-1394 14153- Ter'l Eddlern-EIIL Fay roll 5544.39
4315394 1413-1 Teri Eddlla-man Paymll 5544.39
4315394 14155 Teri Ecldleman 5544.39
4330394 143-1212F Teri Eddleman Fayre-l1 5544.39
5313-394 143-45 Teri E-rl-rlleman [Fayre-ll 5544.39
5331394 14414 Teri E-d-dlernan Fayre-ll 5544.39
539394 14455 Ter'L Eddlernan Emhezzlement $544.39
5315394 14533 Teri Eddleman Fair'mll 5544.39
5319394 14519 Teri Ekidleman Fayre-ll 5544.39
T311394 14511 Teri Ekidleman Emhezzlement 5544.39
1314394 14511 Teri Fayre-ll 5544.39
1315394 14551 Teri EdeerrIaIl Emhezzlement 5544.39
T319394 Teri Eddlern-EIIL Fay roll 5544.39
5315394 Teri Eddleman Payroll 5544.39
5315394 1419.]- Teri Ecldleman 5544.39
53.31394 14559 Teri Eddleman Fayre-l1 5544.39
931.3394 145-5? Teri Fayre-ll 5544.39
931121394 1495.]- Ter'L Edeern-am Emhezzlement 5544.39
9331:1394 14-94-U Teri [?ddle-man Fay r511 $544.39
1113143941 149.14 Teri Eddleman Faymll 5544.39
1533394 13:91 Teri Ecldleman 5544.39
112131-1394 15145 Ter'L Eddleman Fayre-l1 5544.39
11314394 1531? Teri Eddleman Payroll 5544.39
11311394 15333- Ter'L EdeerrIaIl Emhezzlement 5551.95
11319394 1541:]- Ted Ecl-rllernan Pay r511 5551.95
1131394 15.515 Teri Eddleman Emhezzlement 5551.95
11315394 1550.]- Ter'L Ekidleman Fayre-ll 57311.15
11319394 155.31 Teri Eddleman Emhezzlerruent $111.15
11319394 1.5.711 Teri Ecldleman Pay rc-ll 5111.15

We have discovered over $41,000 stolen in Teri's name alone from 1993 to 1995. We now
have copies of the front and back of ALL the checks written from 1992 until Rick left in
2001.
I'll enclose the December 2004 transactions from above just so you can see some hard
data. Two of the checks below are real payroll checks and the other two are
embezzlements. This is a process Rick repeated hundreds of times putting my sister at risk
for going to jail.

  

 



 

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3: 12:31WISH9151-51-4
I MINT





 

 

This is not the act of a man who respects his family.
As mentioned previously, in the computer system, Rick would code the embezzlements as
if they were payments to vendors. The physical checks were instead actually written to
Rick or Teri. The only way to discover this cover-up was to cross-reference a physical
check processed by the bank, as we did above (and have now done for every company
check written to Rick or Teri from 1992 until 2001) with the internal computer records
Rick had manipulated and controlled. Since Rick did the bank reconciliations, the
accounting staff would rarely see the physical checks from the bank, but even if they did
the individual checks would have appeared to be payroll checks.
This is an elaborate scheme. One of the amazing things about this behavior is the
enormous amount of planning and thousands of lies necessary to conceal it. These are
calculated and intentional felonies in a daily pattern of behavior. It’s not a single crime, but

 rather a lifestyle of stealing in a multitude of separate criminal actions on a continuous
basis. This occurred day after day after day.
In 1995, Rick stole over $76,000 using methods similar to the above. All this is in addition
to the credit card theft mentioned earlier. 1995 was the year Teri stopped working for
Decipher, however, Rick continued to steal via checks: $39,44.63 in 1996, $90,751.94 in
1997, $25,610.56 in 1998, $27,603.92 in 1999, and on and on. His catalog of felonies is
off the scale.
The above checks are shown because they are in Teri's name, but not to be outdone with
these smaller amounts, Rick used a similar method to steal enormous sums of money
between 1993 and 2001 in single checks of $8,000 and $7,232.56 and $5,000.00 and
$6,876.23 and $14,500.00 and $6,412.06 and $10,500.00 and $3,816.30 and $11,000.00
and $19,842.30 at a time. He repeated this scenario over and over and over, for nine years.
While the computer records show these checks were written to various vendors, an
exhaustive examination of the physical checks themselves revealed that they were written
to Rick, signed by Rick, and cashed by Rick.
Rick also partnered with his sister Kathy to steal even more.
Rick’s sister, Kathy Eddleman, also worked for the company and stole tens of thousands of
dollars in a conspiracy with Rick. From 1998 to early 2001, Kathy embezzled money with
her company credit card, in a mirror image of Rick's theft, using exactly the same method.
And, as Kathy's supervisor, Rick was responsible for reviewing and approving her credit
card purchases, so it would have been impossible for him to miss. Examples of Kathy's
theft include:
Barnes & Noble
Planet Music
Marina Shores LTD
Marina Shores LTD
Experience Plus
Coastal Grill-Va. Beach
Best Western Radford
Macado's Radford
Vance Hotel Seattle
Rams Head Tavern-MD
Loews Hotel
Country Inn-MD
Scott Parr, DDS (dentist)
R Scott Parr DDS (dentist)
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Farm Fresh-Va Beach
One Fish Two Fish
Max & Erma's
Marina Shores Adminis

$85.71
$100.00
$400.00
$360.80
$6,135.00
$114.14
$165.32
$168.07
$382.96
$56.75
$67.77
$204.17
$2,900.00,
$1,691.99
$584.07
$22.99
$105.51
$239.41
$1541.78

 YPAC- Canine Country Club
American Boat Listing
Sands Parking Systems
Max & Erma's
Shell- Va Beach
Kabler School for Dogs
Beach Video Productions
Marina Shores Admins
YPAC Canine Country Club
Marina Shores Admins
Marina Shores Admins

$325.00
$190.00
$480.00
$45.07
$33.34
$600.00
$104.40
$594.59
$200.00
$485.70
$485.70

Rick and Kathy paid for "Doggie Day Care" by stealing money from Decipher. When our
controller was out of town, and Rick was spending millions of dollars behind-the-scenes,
Rick wrote a check to Kathy for $2,500 to make payments on her car. In fact, Kathy had
asked me for a company loan that same year, and I had indicated that Decipher was short
of cash at the time and could not make loans. Instead, not aware that they were stealing, I
personally loaned Kathy $9,500 to help her purchase a boat so she could live her dream on
the water.
A few years ago, Rick and Kathy were working for the same used car
dealership. Decipher had to sue Kathy, just like the current case against
Rick, to get a judgment. We naturally won the case. Interestingly, after the
case, our legal firm had conversations with the management of the
dealership who spoke openly about asking Kathy about Decipher's
garnishment against her. In a mirror image of Rick's lies, Kathy said she
"had 'borrowed' money from Decipher and had offered to pay it back (she
never offered to pay it back and it was never borrowed... it was embezzled),
but that instead of taking her payment, I had sued her." The management
admitted that Kathy's story didn't quite sound right so they tried to verify it
by asking Rick. He told them the exact same lie. The pair of them not only
conspired to defraud Decipher and others, but they corroborated each
other's stories.
Another example...
After Rick's crimes came to light, two of our warehouse managers visited
me one day to tell me a story of horrible things Rick had said about Cindy
and me over the years. As a reminder, Cindy is Decipher's president and I'm
the company CEO. The conversation with these employees lasted over an
hour, with one recurring theme: Rick repeatedly expressed hatred for us. In
the same way he built a psychological wall with his accounting staff, these
employees said he had tried to do the same thing at the warehouse.
In our family, there is a story of a time when Rick and I were teenagers. We
used to go camping on the islands off North Carolina. On one such trip,

 Rick and I were out in the water swimming when I got a cramp in one of my
legs. As I was pulling myself to shore, I got a cramp in the other leg, and
Rick was helping me in. We always told the story to the kids about the time
Rick saved my life. It was a little family legend of Rick being a hero. The
warehouse managers above recounted in detail how Rick told them the
story one day at the warehouse, and when he was finished he said, "I wish I
never saved him."
Another example...
We now know that Rick purchased equipment and supplies in Decipher's
name, and never used them in the company. This kind of theft is harder to
trace, especially when the person involved is in a position to hide the
assets. As such, I am not including a dime of it here nor in the court case.
Nonetheless, we have learned that Rick gave Decipher-purchased
equipment to various people as gifts and he used equipment at home that
was never authorized by the management team to be purchased in the first
place. When he left the company, we discovered over $30,000 in state-ofthe-art computer equipment in his home, all paid for by Decipher.
A really big example...
In the first three to five years that Rick was working for Decipher, one of his
missions was to build an accounting system that could provide real-time
information to management. This was nearly 15 years ago, and we were
clearly ahead of our time in our industry.
Rick had already moved through a few accounting packages (in hindsight,
to cover-up his crimes). One project was using a database called 4th
Dimension, a Macintosh-based system with great possibilities for us. Rick
hired a software engineer by the name of Lincoln Stoller, and we purchased
some of Lincoln's unique accounting code. Rick worked on the project with
Lincoln for two years.
One day Rick came to me and said, "4th Dimension is not working. It's
taking too long to develop and we need something much bigger, like
PeopleSoft or Oracle." I was very disappointed but I nonetheless trusted
Rick and I gave him the task of researching software options. He returned,
saying we could get "everything we dreamed of with PeopleSoft" for
$750,000. That sounded like a lot of money for a company our size and I
was hesitant. Rick persisted, and a short time later came back and said,
"I've negotiated a really good deal and we have to do this. We can get a
complete implementation of Oracle and Oracle financials for $500,000." I
approved the budget.

 After Rick's crimes were discovered, I contacted Lincoln. I really didn't
know him very well because he always worked with Rick. The first thing he
said was, "Warren, I was very disappointed that Decipher dropped our
software. We were totally finished. You could have monitored every
transaction from your desktop." I said, "Rick told me your software
wouldn't work." Lincoln said, "Rick told us that higher powers than he
wanted a system that had 'big corporation' bells and whistles."
It was all a lie by Rick. Lincoln's software was complete. I've seen versions
of it since and it not only would have worked, it would have given us an
advantage in our industry years before our competitors were even close.
However, it also would have enabled me to "see" Rick's criminal activity.
So Rick moved the company to a half-million-dollar software package
simply so he could continue stealing and hiding his theft.
Lincoln said, "You know, in hindsight, I could see this. Rick never provided
any support for the transition. He kept tight control over the data and never
enabled anyone else to learn the new system. It was odd that Decipher did
not make the move to Oracle until we actually finished and delivered our
system."
"At the end of my time at Decipher Rick redirected me away from the task
of installing the new system and had me programming Excel-like spread
sheets for the old system that we were trying to replace. I let him know that
I was not available for work of that nature. It was too bad because (with)
me as the lead programmer and him with his engineering degree...." I
stopped him. "What engineering degree?" Lincoln said, "The engineering
degree Rick told me he had." I said, "Rick doesn't have an engineering
degree. He flunked out of Old Dominion University."
For many years, Rick complained to my parents and others about the level of work he was
doing at Decipher. In reality, he was spending an enormous amount of energy executing
and covering-up his crimes; but we didn't know that at the time.
Rick began the Oracle implementation in mid-1998, a process he indicated would take 3-5
months. In 1999, it was still going on. What I did as a result must have shocked Rick to his
core. I offered to lighten his workload by bringing in someone to take over accounting.
Rick said he would "start looking for someone," but from that moment on he knew the
writing was on the wall. He was going to lose control of accounting.
A few years later, I interviewed an executive at one of the Oracle
consultants that Rick had hired. He told me that they had recommended a
path to Rick that would have installed everything, fully-functional, in 120
days. They had successfully done this at hundreds of other sites, most much
larger than Decipher, and most more complex than Decipher. Rick rejected
the plan. Instead, he assigned the consultants to tasks like custom

 programming, inventory, and online stores that kept them out of the
financial information flow. The consultant said, "At the time, I thought it
was crazy, but Rick was the boss."
Rick's pathology was so deep, and his house-of-cards so complex, that he couldn't stop, so
running Decipher out of business was his only option of escape. He embarked on a
clandestine scheme that would bankrupt the company and obscure his nine-year crime
spree. History repeats itself. We have been told by respected sources that Rick had done
this before and gotten away with it at his own company, Eastman Construction.
Rick delayed hiring anyone. While the reasons seemed natural at the time, a year later, he
was still "looking for someone." By early 2000, the Oracle implementation was a mess. Of
course, we didn't know this was all part of Rick's plan: Oracle had to be a mess for his
crimes to remain hidden.
In April 2000, still totally in the dark about what Rick was really doing, I
said to him in an email, "I'd like to bring in someone at a CFO level to take
the controller, accounting and financial controls responsibility. Also, I think
it would relieve a lot of pressure by reducing the number of people you have
to manage."
Rick responded, "I don't wish to lose either position or stature within the
company and would like time to think through & voice elements of this path
I perceive important to those I currently supervise and similarly those
aspects equally important to me. ... In spite of my heart felt dedication and
need to contribute to the company's success at the highest level I live
instead with feelings of quiet despair that the odds are no longer in my
favor. So I appreciate your consideration, notice and concern! (I told Rick
"I do not believe they are no longer in your favor. I think you have options
to excel.") Rick continued, "I want the recognition that my work has moved
the ball uniquely in ways others could not; that my association has made a
difference."
It was all an act. By this time Rick was not only deep into fresh methods of
theft on top of the ones he had been using for years, but he was also deep
into spending us out of business. In what must have been jolting to Rick, I
called our outside accounting firm and offered the CFO job to the senior
partner, a man I had known and respected for a dozen years. He didn't want
to leave the firm, but he recommended one of his partners. I interviewed
and ultimately hired a man named Walt Eley.
Before I mention things Rick did to try to run us out of business, it's worth noting that
Walt actually was the person who discovered the "tip of the iceberg" of Rick's
embezzlement.

 I brought Walt in very quickly (although it was November before he got the title of CFO).
Still, Rick needed time. First he had to try to cover his criminal activities. Second, since
the loss of accounting control was inevitable, Rick (trusted employee that he was) took on
the role of managing the "transition." Rick said he needed to continue to maintain the old
systems and do the unique programming to transition Oracle to a complete
implementation. So Walt started part-time which gave Walt an opportunity to close out his
client accounts for his former employer. Plus, there were five accounting tools in use at the
time: Oracle had been installed for inventory, remnants of 4th Dimension were still in
operations, Quicken and Multiledger were used for various tasks, and Excel was used for
reporting to management. Rick alone knew all these systems. Training Walt on accounting
packages we were eliminating would have been silly. (In hindsight it would have been
quite fortunate, but it seemed unnecessary at the time.) At first, Walt focused on
accounting tasks like cleaning up daily problems and our Accounts Receivable. Within a
very short time, Walt was in every management meeting and we offered him the CFO job.
During this time, Rick reported financial information to the management team (which now
included Walt) in spreadsheet form as he always had for nine years. In one such report,
Rick indicated a particular consulting expense was $100,000, which would have been
reasonable, given the overall $500,000 budget. Walt questioned that in a management
meeting, because he had just seen a bill from a consultant for about $125,000 or so. Rick
said, "That's not right. I'll take care of it. The president of Intelligroup owes us a credit for
work they did wrong." Rick followed with an email...
"... As of Friday, last week, I negotiated with Intelligroup (the consultant
Company) to disengage these consultants as of that date, Friday,
September 29th. Effective as of that date, we will no longer have these
ongoing consulting expenses. Further, I have arranged with Intelligroup to
continue with these consultants "at no charge" for a period not to exceed
two (2) additional weeks to allow us to complete the implementation and
customization of Oracle's iStore; the internet commerce module we own.
Also we will maintain both the DBA (database administrator) and the
applications functional support person to insure that these on-line
transactions properly interface and behave with our Oracle financial
applications as we move to real-time credit card transaction processing."
"While you will continue to see them residing in the "garden level" over the
next two weeks while we work through the iStore implementation, I wanted
you to be apprised of the understanding that we will NOT be charged for
their services..."
Rick was lying. By the end of November, Intelligroup still had consultants in the basement
and the management team asked Rick about it. He responded in writing:
“I fully accept responsibility for (1) underestimating the complexity of the
iStore implementation with respect to the HTML integration into Oracle
and (2) overestimating how quickly it could be done. Given the complexity

 of the implementation, it is clear that my estimate of two weeks was
unrealistic and admit reliance upon equally optimistic projections from
Intelligroup. In the future, I will endeavor to be more critical in making
these projections and include allowances for the problems and challenges
that invariably arise with systems this complex. At the very least, I will keep
you better apprised of unforeseen challenges and resource demands on a
much more regular basis."
"On a related note, we are not being charged for Intelligroup's services on
this iStore implementation, however, I am mindful this can't last forever.”
Rick was lying. While using words like "responsibility" and "I will endeavor to be more
critical," he was secretly and intentionally destroying the company. By the time Walt and I
initiated personal contact with the consultant on the billing, we owed Intelligroup more
than a quarter of a million dollars just for the time Rick had indicated was free. Their total
bill for consulting services: $1.5 million. When I went back in time and reviewed the
financial spreadsheet data Rick prepared for management in 2000, he never showed $1.4
million in payments he made covertly to these consultants, as if they never occurred.
A trick Rick used to hide expenditures from management was to "capitalize" payments in
the computer system or simply to not record them and then reconcile the bank accounts.
The first is a method of changing the company's underlying capitalization instead of
showing an expense on an Income Statement where it belongs and where it can be seen by
management. Rick used this method to hide millions from management while he
attempted to bankrupt the company.
But that's not all. Another consultant was also paid over $1.2 million. Without the
knowledge or consent of management, Rick had signed open-ended contracts with eight
consultants (i.e. at $200 per hour) while failing to pay $1.2 million to our printers who
were manufacturing cards (which increased the company debt at the same time Rick was
draining the company of much-needed cash). While Rick's staff knew about some of these
expenses, Rick led them to believe they were authorized. In reality, no one on the
management team ever saw or approved these contracts. Only two consultants were part of
the $500,000 budget, and that was known, but there were six additional consultants that no
one on the management team even knew existed.
Rick's own accounting staff didn't know about some of them. The total Rick spent covertly
on the software implementation with a budget of $500,000: more than $4.7 million. But,
that's not all. Two months ago, in the process of preparing for trial, I was personally going
through two years of checks by hand when I discovered a ninth consultant who was paid at
least $130,000 – completely unknown and hidden from management. There could actually
be more when I go back to earlier periods.
It's also possible there are numerous kickbacks we have not yet discovered. I say that
because we've discovered one already. From January 1, 1999, to February 28, 2001, Rick
paid $50,434.28 in kickbacks to an employee of one of the consultants. This year I learned

 from that particular consultant's employer that they have a strict policy against any
employee being paid directly. We are currently investigating this, and it now appears Rick
took some of these funds and deposited them to a personal credit union account in his own
name.
As if all these things were not enough, in addition to the duplicate payroll check scheme
mentioned above, Rick was overpaying himself in payroll at the time. For example, in
2000, Rick paid himself $10,546.20 more than his salary (not counting bonuses). Rick was
supposed to make the same $135,000 in salary as another VP on the management team.
However, the other VP's W-2 was accurate at $135, 910.06, while Rick's was $146,456.26.
Rick's pay should have been exactly the same as the other VP's to the penny. Our outside
accountant said Rick provided the payroll data and never reported that his salary was
supposed to be $135,000.
Decipher had an informal structure, but no one would spend $100,000 without talking
about it in a management meeting or via me giving approval in conversations with the
appropriate manager. Rick knew this and brought up small items in management meetings
all the time for approval. In reality, he only did this to deceive; to make others believe he
was conscientious and responsible. We now know this was a charade. For example, Rick
once asked for approval in a management meeting for a $7,000 computer monitor.
Everyone on the management team said no, we didn't need it. We later found it in Rick's
home... purchased with Decipher money. At the same time, Rick was totally silent about
millions of dollars he was hiding, spending and stealing. Manipulation and betrayal of the
highest order.
But that's not all. In this massive scheme to run the company out of cash,
Rick covertly drew down millions of dollars in debt from our bank lines of
credit that he did not report to management. Decipher used to have $3
million in credit lines that we never used. The company philosophy was that
we were totally debt-free. This philosophy was drilled into everyone, and it
was something about which we were quite proud.
Most of our licenses required us to write advance checks in the $1 million
range. At the time, we could afford that and more on our own. The only
reason lines of credit even existed was because we had negotiations going
on with Hollywood studios all the time. We had big licenses like Star Trek,
Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, and many smaller licenses. I knew it was
quite possible that some day we would have a big licensing opportunity or
a multi-million-dollar acquisition opportunity where we would need to
quickly tap into millions of dollars in cash. The lines of credit existed so
that if such an opportunity arose, we were ready. For example, one of the
licenses we attempted to get (Harry Potter) cost over $6 million and a renegotiation for the Star Wars license at one point exceeded that. Because
Decipher was debt-free and quite profitable, we had no problem securing
these lines of credit and not using them.

 As our financial officer, Rick drew down these funds in secret. I discovered
this by chance for the first time in June 2000 through a strange twist in fate.
Decipher's 401(k) deposits had been "missed" by accounting (something
that had never happened before 2000) and this matter was brought to my
attention by an employee who was not on the accounting staff. I thought
this was quite embarrassing and I drafted a suggested response for Rick
which included making all payments immediately, paying employees for
any losses in stock value over this time in their 401(k) account and assuring
them the company was healthy and debt-free.
Of course, I didn't know it at the time, but Rick couldn't send my draft
because his accounting staff would have seen the words "debt-free" and
they would have known Rick was lying. Rick was trapped.
Rick changed the draft and said to me, "I could not in all honesty suggest
we were totally debt free, as we have needed to use the operating line to fill
in the gaps... while we work through collecting some of our receivables.
Also, we made the decision to pay the taxes from the line in preference to
the penalties and interest Bob (Decipher's accountant) suggested we might
face, about $500,000."
[It's worth noting here that if Rick had been properly reporting his theft, the
taxes would not have been due because there would have been losses
instead of income.]
June 17, 2000, I responded, "You should have told me this! How long has
this loan been outstanding? Being debt free is one of the cornerstones of
the company and I'm not happy that you would take such a step without
informing me! ... Rick, I can't operate like this any longer. This constant
pattern of failing to communicate and provide financial information is
totally unacceptable. ... Until I am comfortable that we actually have
accounting controls and Oracle is working, you and Becky are not
authorized to make financial decisions of any kind without my approval.
That includes who gets paid and when."
But, the story gets worse, and takes yet another turn.
My June 17th email above was sent to Rick (with a copy to Cindy). However, Rick never
told Becky a thing about it. She had no idea that he (and she, for that matter) had lost
authority to make financial decisions. Four days later, Rick directed her to write a check
for nearly a quarter of a million dollars in software. Not only was this unauthorized, but
when I saw this check many years later as investigations of Rick's crimes continued, I
realized Rick had financed software without telling the management team (see my debtfree discussion above). In reality, this was the third such hidden payment: $750,000 in
software alone on a $500,000 budget. It was all part of the plan to bankrupt the company.

 Yet, it still gets worse.
By late June 2000, I had put a freeze on all computer and network purchases. By mid-July
2000, I specifically directed Rick to make no loans of any kind without me knowing. On
July 25th, Rick covertly purchased an additional $179,356.99 in software. This time he
didn't pay for it with a check, rather he financed it with new loans and never reported it as
an expense. This also meant that when I discovered these purchases after we learned of
Rick's embezzlement, we couldn't get the money back. The software company had been
paid in total by the finance company; the finance company wasn't in the software business.
We had no recourse because the unauthorized loans had been taken out by Rick, our own
trusted vice-president of finance.
In November, I heard by chance through the grapevine that Rick was considering
purchasing $20,000 in software. I emailed Rick and said, "I have previously indicated that
I wanted to be involved in all spending decisions. ... don't make any such purchases." He
said, "No problem," that it was just software he had been investigating for more than six
months.
What he didn't say was that he had already covertly spent $1.2 million after my June 17th
email. This included nearly half a million dollars on software between July and November,
plus an additional $700,000 on consultants. This $1.2 million did not even include his
embezzlements during this same period. In late 2006, I discovered a quarter of a million
dollars of this software, hidden, unopened and never used, still in the shrink-wrap. All just
part of Rick's efforts to bankrupt the company. No one imagined Rick was intentionally
doing anything like this. Why would he?
We were about to find out.
As Walt got deeper and deeper into the daily accounting systems, he discovered the
"suspense account" which at the time had a balance of about $80,000. Luckily, he took this
information to our in-house lawyer, Anthony, instead of Becky (who did not attend
management meetings and would have thought Rick had authority). Anthony said, "You
have to take this to Warren." Walt responded, "It's probably okay. Rick is his brother-inlaw," to which Anthony replied, "No... you have to take this to Warren." They both brought
it to me, and I was shocked and disillusioned. I told them Rick was not authorized to spend
company money on personal items, and we needed to investigate the matter further. A few
days later, Walt discovered another $40,000 in unauthorized payments bringing the total to
$120,000. Rick was confronted. He said he borrowed it (which was very strange because
at the time the company was running out of cash).
"Rick, is this all?" he was asked. "Yes. That's everything," he responded. You now know it
wasn't everything. It was barely a percentage point of everything.
More? Yes, there is even more.

 We discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment Rick purchased and hid
unopened at the warehouse. We also learned about another scheme that was an even bigger
betrayal. Decipher had a few small thefts from employees over the years. It happens in
every company. It was usually a few hundred dollars here or there, sometimes a thousand
dollars. However, Rick was always furious at these employees. He took great pains to
focus on the betrayal and champion pursuing them. These tiny matters gave Rick the
opportunity to pretend to be a defender of the company instead of the criminal he was. It
was all a smoke-screen of false integrity.
One of Rick's jobs as our financial vice-president was to manage the
company insurance policies. This included the bonding of employees,
especially in the accounting department, where large sums of money were
handled.
In December 1996 in an email to Rick, I said to him, "... cover anyone in
the company with access to funds. Bonding is just the prudent thing to do
when we have millions floating around."
Rick responded, "I'm a step ahead of you on this one... we currently have
employee dishonesty insurance coverage... I'll make sure we're all
adequately protected."
He was lying.
Two years later, in December 1998, the issue came up again when a friend
related a story to me about someone stealing funds from a charity she ran. I
emailed Rick, mentioned the story, and said, "We should include bonding in
our insurance as a matter of course for all accounting staff and anyone else
with access to bank accounts, customer checks, computer access at the
accounting level, managers with access to funds, etc. I don't think we would
have anyone steal from Decipher [obviously I didn't know I was writing to
the man who had already been stealing for five years], but... Let's have
every appropriate employee bonded, or get Decipher coverage that protects
the company against this from anyone."
Another two years later, in January 2000, an insurance issue occurred with
an employee on a different matter and in that email I stated to Rick, "I've
asked about this before and been told we had 'total' coverage." Rick
responded, "You have asked that we make certain we have employee theft
insurance (bonding) and this has been in force for some time."
Rick lied. He never bonded accounting employees.
We discovered this lack of insurance at the worst possible time, when we
wrote off $8.9+ million in losses because of Rick's crimes. The only
insurance coverage we had on point was one tiny clause in the standard

 language of our general insurance policy. Even that had a time limit of a
few years. Rick had intentionally NOT covered the company so we could
never recover his theft and by 2001 could not recover from bankruptcy. In
other words, Rick planned to take us down regardless.
Rick not only intentionally disregarded multiple directions, he lied about
them. The irony is, he alone knew what "adequately protected" meant, since
he was the dishonest employee from which the company needed insurance
protection. If "adequate" coverage had been in place as Rick said, we could
have recovered $8.9+ million.
If Decipher had gone out of business, it is very unlikely that Rick's crimes would have
been discovered. The computer records didn't match the physical checks, but with the
company bankrupt, who would be looking? Even when we discovered Rick was
embezzling, it took us ages to learn it was millions of dollars rather than the small amount
he claimed he "borrowed." Rick covered up everything. If he had been employed by
Decipher just a few months longer, the company would have been bankrupted.
With so much money moving around, why couldn't it be seen? For one thing, many
millions of dollars were outside funds not from the company operations. This took the
form of Rick making illicit loans and creating a hidden debt load with borrowing and
purchases never seen in normal business operations. For another, Rick had dozens of
schemes happening simultaneously. This diluted the effect of any one method. While a few
million dollars a year sounds like a lot at the end, and frankly it was enormous, it was only
about 8% of the cash moving through the organization at any given time. Rick had the
authority, control and our complete trust. He manipulated numbers to cover up nine years
of skimming. Finally, when someone deceives over 100 people daily and the secret
manipulator is a person you trust, one rarely has the clairvoyance to see they are
intentionally working against the interest of every other employee. Especially when he's
acting every day behind a mask of sincerity telling people how hard he is working and
how much he cares about the company.
After Rick left, I personally took over the banking relationship. I had a history with our
bank for fifteen years. They had been though our ups and downs over the years and they
had enormous respect for my integrity. So I had a meeting with all the key bank
executives. I explained the situation and pitched the bank to stick with Decipher. Despite
the fact that the company now had a negative net worth, they stayed with us. It was
something they would not have done for 99.9% of companies. They renewed our loans
(with the help of my parents providing new levels of security), but of course we now had
millions in bank debt on top of Rick's undisclosed expenses. We also owed millions to our
real vendors which Rick had not paid. The bank stayed with me for five more years. Last
year, my parents and I mortgaged our homes and Cindy contributed cash to pay-off the
balance of this one loan. The bank got every dime owned to them on the lines of credit,
including interest for all this time.

 It's worth noting that none of the amounts I'm discussing in this letter include errors or
decisions made by the respected members of the management team based on falsified
financial and asset reports Rick supplied to our bank and management. As an example, we
have identified $3+ million in inventory losses that I'm not counting, but we now know
they were a direct result of Rick's erroneous reports. I mention this because I've heard
through the grapevine that Rick uses examples like this to shift financial blame to another
manager. "See, I didn't do the things Decipher accused me of doing. That was clearly Ross'
responsibility." While this type of lie naturally brings Teri to Rick's defense, as it would
for any loving person being manipulated, what Rick doesn't tell her is that he intentionally
gave everyone on the management team fabricated financial data for nine years. It is
impossible to imagine that we wouldn't make serious mistakes using Rick's misleading
reports. Nonetheless, I'm willing to leave $3+ million out of the case simply to remove this
form of manipulation from Rick's arsenal of lies to Teri.
Of course, our biggest mistake was trusting Rick. That one act has nearly destroyed my
company. For Decipher, this betrayal primarily represents money and survival. However,
for his wife, children, and my parents, it represents an emotional treachery on the deepest
levels. Besides grappling with his massive crimes at Decipher, they must face the reality
that Rick has lied for a lifetime to them, or they will continue to live a lie. Who among
honest people wouldn't have a broken heart over that?
I should also point out, if it's not obvious already, that Rick was very well paid. He was a
trusted vice-president. There were times when Cindy and I gave $2 million in bonuses to
employees. Some people at lower income levels got more in bonuses than their salaries.
Rick got bonuses as well. He got big bonuses, sometimes as much as $75,000 in a lump
sum. The fact that every financial report he ever gave to management was bogus certainly
means he was grossly overpaid.
Six years after the discovery of the "tip of the iceberg," Rick still refuses to come clean.
For example, he has over $21,000 in Decipher 401(k) accounts and yet he has never
offered to use that to pay Decipher back. How does he explain this to his children when he
told them that he "borrowed money and intended to pay it back?" Everything we know
about Rick's behavior has come from working thousands of hours to investigate an utterly
dishonest man. Rick has volunteered absolutely nothing. He has not shown the slightest
sign of remorse, changed his behavior, nor offered to pay a dime of reimbursement since
2001. He has never offered to pay $10 a week back, never explained where the money
went, never apologized (although he manipulated his family into thinking he was sorry for
the $120,000), never evolved a conscience beyond the con, never taken the first step in a
twelve step program, never volunteered a written or verbal list of his crimes (leaving us to
spend enormous resources in money and emotional capital to uncover the truth). Decipher
recently sent 1099’s to Rick, the IRS, and the State of Virginia for over $1 million in
income tax evasion we discovered in the last few months through our own initiative. Rick
never pointed us in the right direction or confessed these crimes (as a repentant man would
have done six years ago). With this discovery and hundreds of others, it's irrefutably clear
Rick continues to conceal and manipulate the truth to this day. His family and my parents

 will now be the biggest emotional victims. Rick abuses everyone with exploitation, lies,
and duplicity.
While I wish I could have protected my sister and my nieces from this information, no one
but Rick is responsible for his betrayal. I can't imagine how he could do this to his family.
I can't imagine how he could do this to my parents, who treated him like their own son. I
can't imagine how he could do this to the Decipher employees – many of whom lost their
jobs because of his crimes.
People accept deplorable behavior from a manipulator that they would never accept from
other people in their life. It's wrong. My nieces are victims. My sister is a victim. Rick and
Kathy have deliberately betrayed them. Not once, but for a lifetime. Defending such
behavior is indefensible. It's called deflection: the conscious and intentional process a
manipulator uses in order to get people to defend his/her behavior and blame others. It's a
common experience of people who bond with their betrayer. And it's wrong. Decipher's
biggest mistake was caring about and trusting Rick Eddleman. For the good of my family,
exposing his lies and lack of character is my duty.
Unconditional love does not mean the unconditional acceptance of unacceptable behavior.
I can choose not to have Rick and Kathy in my life. For my nieces and my sister the
situation is more emotionally crushing than I can fathom. For example, the Trust
embezzlement and forgery were intentional felonies of Rick stealing from his own
children. Emotion aside, his children would be millionaires now were it not for him. Yet
my sister and her children have such wonderful hearts that they want to believe Rick was
somehow wronged. Now, it is simply naive to do so. Rick exploits their love. I will never
understand how he could so grossly betray them. It's immoral. It was heartbreaking for me
to see my brave niece saying, "That's not my signature. That's not my signature." when
looking at Rick's forgeries for the first time. As painful as it is for his family to hear, Rick
is a criminal... not just of one crime... but of thousands and thousands of crimes. If we
apply the same standard of behavior to Rick that we apply to anyone else in our lives (and
we should do nothing less), it's easy to see that if he had a conscience or a sliver of moral
character, he would never have put his family in this position… and for this long. Now
their private devastation is about to become public humiliation because Rick refused a
settlement offer that would have simply required him to repent and admit what he had
done (and continues to do).
Rick Eddleman and Kathy Eddleman are criminals by choice. It was their choice alone.
There is no excuse for it. There is no justification for it. I do not accept their behavior, and
neither should any rational person who cares about justice or who loves Teri, Rickell,
Brielle and their families. I trust in the goodness of the extended family reading this letter
to support the people who will need it most now that these facts are becoming public: Teri,
Rickell, Brielle, and my parents. As I said in the beginning of this letter what I offer is
candor and sincerity. I love my sister. I love my nieces. And I dearly love my parents.
Rick has intentionally driven a wedge between family members that has shattered the solid
foundation my parents spent more than fifty-five years building.

 Rick single-handedly is responsible for untold acts of betrayal: thousands of calculated
acts of theft, thousands of cover-ups, deceptions, and roadblocks to the truth. By
intentionally hiding information and lying to his family, he created a false view with his
wife and children that he's a victim rather than the person who overtly and intentionally
wronged others. This behavior is amazingly demonstrated in the movie of a true story,
"Shattered Glass." I had never before witnessed a phenomenon like this in my life. Yet,
this is what Rick does every day. The betrayal is mind-boggling.
Rick destroyed nearly twenty years of my work and the work of many talented people at
Decipher. As CEO, I am not without responsibility. As a result, I worked for five years
without a salary to try to turn the company around. I also contributed all of my personal
assets to the effort. I almost lost my company, and it is still reeling from the fraud. Had I
not hired and trusted Rick, many people would not have lost their jobs. Cindy has worked
for five years at low pay and long hours with gargantuan integrity and dedication. We are
not alone. We have experienced the joy of an enormous outpouring of support. The
sacrifices made by our staff, closest friends, and vendors has been amazing. My parents
have mortgaged their home, contributed millions from the sale of assets, and without a
doubt have been the saviors of the company. They are the definition of love.
There are many more crimes by Rick that will be exposed in the company's civil suit. And
more emotional damage is coming from his actions. Rick has both criminal and civil
liability. Since there is no federal statute for embezzlement, the bulk of Rick's crimes from
a criminal perspective do not fall under federal agencies like the F.B.I. (Although Rick's
income tax evasion, which has just come to light, is a Federal offense.) Instead,
embezzlement, forgery, computer fraud, etc. are prosecuted by the Commonwealth
Attorney. I could go on and on presenting more of Rick's crimes to you. I removed nearly
ten pages of information from one draft of this letter, so understand that there is much
more we have uncovered. Instead, I am now turning over Decipher's files to the Norfolk
Commonwealth Attorney. There is no statue of limitations on felonies in Virginia.
It's impossible to believe that Rick's behavior started when he joined Decipher. Such deceit
doesn't magically begin 30 days after a new job. This is a lifetime of wearing a mask.
What Rick can do now is voluntarily admit his felonies and face the consequences. When
we only knew 1% of Rick's crimes and we cared for him deeply, we allowed him to resign
instead of being fired. Rick was lying to us throughout the entire process. To understand a
pathological liar and his level of disconnection from the world, one has to understand his
level of manipulation. You have to hear Rick's words for yourself.
So, I'll close with his letter of resignation.
Warren

 Wm

Tu: wm Han-m. Cindy 111mm!
From: Rick Eddlmun

DI: M. 25L EIJI

.M'lrr drum 11m [tanning much and wad-ting bud. In lb: ?nals of
Daciphu. I ?nd um] Indy and in and at moving down lumber pan. 1: 11 win
I minmul?fnud fella-Him: I tend? my nailnli-unluyuu 
Huh-d: 31.1211? cannibal! With our mutual :Ipccmiun.

tutti-I p?'iotlsull'wwmi livcsu: rich wilh whichil
MMWdIh-emtuymhawm Murm?y.buwevu.lhavecuu
urchin?:- lime. bee-cummrriurbeluin?y Indium:


w?chlm?w?ywuiu?w.


Humility-n. lhnhuhpiudl?simnpuh?wl?nuu?uh