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A 38-year-old Roseville man pleaded guilty to wire fraud after prosecutors said he stole more than $2.3 million from a Placer County business where he worked as an executive manager, spending most of the stolen money on gambling.
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Christopher William Edward Abplanalp pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, U.S. Attorney in Sacramento Eric Grant announced.
Abplanalp worked for the business for about 20 years and served as its vice president and executive manager, according to court documents. The company’s owners considered him their “right-hand man” and gave him broad access to its finances.
From February 2023 through July 2025, Abplanalp diverted about $2.32 million from the business for his personal use, prosecutors said. Court documents said most of the money went toward gambling.
One method used the company’s online payment processing account, which handled clients’ credit card transactions.
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Abplanalp transferred company money through the payment system to a personal account even though he was not authorized to use the funds for personal expenses, prosecutors said.
Between late May and early July 2025, Abplanalp charged a client’s credit card 52 times in amounts of about $11,720 and $13,032 for items the client had not ordered and invoices that did not exist, according to court documents. Those transactions generated more than $643,000, which Abplanalp then transferred to his personal account, prosecutors said.
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Abplanalp also directed clients to send money owed to the business to his personal accounts and told vendors to send him rebates and refunds intended for the company, prosecutors said. In one instance, he directed a client to write him a check for an invoice and deposited it into his personal account.
To conceal the theft, Abplanalp altered, deleted or falsified entries in the company’s accounting software, according to court documents. He falsely recorded transactions, deleted invoices, created unauthorized credits and reduced amounts owed to zero by classifying payments as charitable sponsorships.
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dhruv M. Sharma prosecuted the case.
Abplanalp is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8 by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd.
He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentence will be determined by the judge based on federal sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
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