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SACRAMENTO, Cal (Gambling911.com) - A Roseville, California man has been charged in a scheme in which he allegedly stole money from his employer and used most of it to gamble, according to prosecutors.
Between 2023 and 2025, 38-year-old Christopher William Edward Abplanalp stole more than $2.3 million from a Placer County business, Wilson Trophy, where he served as an executive.
The family owned business sells trophies, plaques and rings and only employs roughly a dozen people.
Prosecutors say he would divert money from the business's account in an online payment processing system to his personal account, friends or acquaintances. No other individuals have been charged in relation to this matter to date.
Prosecutors said he charged the clients' credit cards repeatedly for items the clients never ordered and for nonexistent invoices. He would then transfer the proceeds to himself.
Abplanalp is also accused of telling clients to tender payments directly to him and of telling vendors to issue rebates and refunds to his personal account.
He then would alter, delete or make false entries in the business's accounting software, prosecutors said.
Abplanalp is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 8. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Jesse Loomis, the chief administrative officer for Wilson Trophy, said Abplanalp is a former vice president and executive at the company.
"The conduct alleged in the information has caused profound financial and personal harm to Wilson Trophy, our family, our employees and the business we have spent generations building," Loomis said.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
