Former DeKalb man indicted for embezzlement

ROCKFORD - A former DeKalb man was indicted Tuesday on charges that he used his business in a scheme to embezzle more than $44,000 from one of its clients. Robert A. Kuzlik, 40, was indicted on eight counts of mail fraud for allegedly embezzling funds from the client from December 1999 through September 2000. A press release issued Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office does not name the victim. Kuzlik was an officer and majority owner of RAK, an executive tax and business services company with an office in DeKalb. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, he had a client mail checks to RAK that were for money withheld from employees' wages and for employment taxes owed by the client. Kuzlik was supposed to deposit the checks into a bank trust account for delivery to the Internal Revenue Service. But instead of depositing the checks into the bank trust account, he allegedly deposited 13 checks, worth a total of $44,264.44, into RAK's bank account. Further information from the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois was not available this morning. DeKalb Police Lt. Jim Kayes said the department last had contact with Kuzlik more than four years ago. If convicted, Kuzlik faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each of the eight charges. Kuzlik is expected back in federal court in Rockford at 11 a.m. Monday.