Executive charged with stealing $5.9M from Cary tech firm

Hugh Franklin Johnson II, 43, of 10304 Rocky Ford Court in Raleigh, was indicted Tuesday on six counts each of embezzlement of more than $100,000 and obtaining property by false pretense of more than $100,000 and two counts of obtaining property by false pretense of less than $100,000. He was being held in the Wake County jail under a $1 million bond.

Johnson managed the Cary office of BMG Labtech Inc., a German firm that makes instruments used in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to run analytical tests in batches. He no longer works at the company.

The indictments allege that, from December 2012 to last October, Johnson used a company credit card on more than $1.6 million in personal expenses, including airline tickets, hotels, restaurants, pornography, clothing, food, gas, car maintenance, utility bills, gym memberships and home cleaning services.

The embezzlement charges on the indictments initially track with the credit card purchases, but the amounts allegedly stolen from the company quickly grow, topping $1 million a year from 2014 through 2017, including almost $1.7 million in 2016.

Johnson also is accused of signing up a man not employed by BMG Labtech for company-sponsored health, dental and life insurance in 2016 and 2017.

"We are shocked at this incident. As we work to address it, we want to assure our clients and customers that the financial health of our company remains strong," BMG Labtech said in a statement. "Due to the ongoing nature of this investigation, we have no further comment at this time."