A former San Francisco tech executive was charged with embezzling more than $2.7 million from his employer

• A former tech exec was charged with embezzling $2.7 million from his employer.  
• Aubrey Jackson Shelton II was accused of using the company's payroll software to "inflate his paychecks." 
• A federal jury charged Shelton II with tax evasion, bank fraud, and wire fraud.

A former tech executive has been charged with embezzling around $2.7 million from his employer after an indictment alleged that he inflated his paychecks and hid proceeds from the IRS for more than eight years.

Aubrey Jackson Shelton II was arrested and charged with tax evasion, bank fraud, and wire fraud on Friday, a press release from the US Attorney's Office in the Northern District of California says. 

An indictment alleges that the former San Francisco executive used his "exclusive control" of the firm's payroll software to "inflate his salary and bonuses," paying himself large sums of money between 2013 and 2021, the press release says.

It adds that he used the software to categorize the payments as  "Executive Loan," "Misc Reimbursement," and "Mileage Reimbursement."

He also is alleged to have falsified information given to the payroll processor, given false payroll approval to the CEO of the company, and sent false tax returns to the IRS that did not disclose the money he is accused of embezzling.

Shelton is scheduled to appear at the San Francisco federal district court in October.

If found guilty, he could be sentenced to prison for up to 30 years for bank fraud and receive a $1 million fine for each violation.

He could face additional prison time of up to 20 years for wire fraud and a potential further five years for tax evasion, according to the press release. 

Another California tech executive was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted of four counts of defrauding investors last year.

Elizabeth Holmes duped investors with false claims about the effectiveness of the technology at her blood-testing company, Theranos. However, her prison term was shortened by two years in July.