Ex-CEO admits to stealing $17K from S. Carolina newspaper

GREENWOOD, S.C. – The former CEO of a Greenwood, South Carolina, newspaper has pleaded guilty to stealing $17,000 from the paper.

The Index-Journal reports former Index-Journal CEO Ed Gunderson pleaded guilty Monday to breach of trust and was sentenced to five years of probation. The 62-year-old Gunderson also was ordered to pay the paper back the $17,000. Gunderson’s lawyer, Rauch Wise, says his client did not mean to steal the money and intended to pay the money back before he was fired in August 2017.

The newspaper began selling digital marketing services through a third-party vendor in 2016, and Gunderson hired his then-wife, Melissa, as a contractor to help sell the service. Greenwood police say contractor payments that were supposed to go to the newspaper instead went to another company run by Gunderson.

___

Information from: The Index-Journal, http://www.indexjournal.com