You might say Kevin Coleman was feathering his own nest in his few years as CEO of the foam-bedding maker Latex International Inc. ”“ except that he appears to have spent the money as fast as he could get his hands on it.
The former CEO of Latex International last week pleaded guilty to stealing $1.7 million from the Shelton-based company, according to the office of U.S. Attorney David Fein, with a former head of human resources also charged with embezzling a similar amount.
Coleman admitted to ringing up hundreds of thousands of dollars to his company credit card between 2008 and 2010, for diamond jewelry ”“ one ring valued at more than $70,000 ”“ a Mercedes Benz roadster and Harley Davidson motorcycles. He also admitted to failing to file federal tax returns for four years on $1.6 million in income, which the government said totaled nearly $750,000.
Coleman is now a 51-year-old resident of Waseca, Minn., where former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling did time at a federal prison there, an hour south of Minneapolis. Coleman told Furniture Today in 2007 that he spent four years as a military policeman in the U.S. Air Force, with his career later taking him through General Electric Co., among other stops.
Latex International announced Coleman”™s resignation in December 2010, without specifying at the time a reason and whether it came at the company”™s request. He was promoted in 2007 to replace former CEO Mike Lorelli, who has since led Water-Jel Technologies, a Carlstadt, N.J.-based company that sells emergency ointments and dressings for burns.
Feeling burned in the figurative sense today is Latex International Chairman John Pouschine, whose New York City-based Pouschine Cook Capital Partners L.L.C. holds a controlling stake in Latex International. The company replaced Coleman with David Fisher, its then-chief operating officer who before joining Latex International in 2009 was CEO of Illinois-based Crownline Boats, with Pouschine Cook Capital a past investor in that company as well. Other Pouschine Capital portfolio companies have included Oxford Health Plans Inc., Planet Hollywood International and Steinway Musical Properties.
Reached by the Fairfield County Business Journal, Pouschine did not want to discuss specifics before prosecutors complete their legal case, but said it was the second time his investment company has undergone a scenario in which a CEO was accused of fraudulent contact.
“It”™s a nightmare,” Pouschine said. “Conceptually, these are bad circumstances when you learn about them ”¦ You prioritize what is most important as far as what senior management needs to know.”
The Latex International case was made that much worse in that it involved two senior managers acting in partnership. Joanne Osmolik, a Newtown resident who led human resources, admitted last December that she charged personal expenditures to her corporate credit card, while helping Coleman lodge some of his own purchases on the credit card assigned to another, unspecified employee. Osmolik destroyed company records at Coleman”™s request and altered his reported wages to help him dodge taxes.
U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill set a May sentencing date for Coleman.
