Prosecutors in Upstate New York say a trusted finance executive turned a family electrical business into his personal bank account, siphoning off more than $4 million over five years. The former Chief Financial Officer of an Albany firm is now accused of orchestrating a sprawling embezzlement scheme that allegedly touched everything from company checks to falsified records. The case lays bare how a single insider, armed with authority and access, can quietly drain a healthy company long before anyone notices.
Investigators describe a pattern of deception that unfolded slowly, transaction by transaction, inside an otherwise unremarkable regional contractor. As the criminal case moves forward, the allegations against the ex‑CFO are already rippling through the Capital Region business community, raising hard questions about internal controls, board oversight, and how much trust any company can safely place in one person’s hands.
The former CFO and the Albany electrical firm at the center of the case
State police say the man at the center of the allegations is Kevin J. Stevens, who served as Chief Financial Officer of an Albany area electrical contractor for years before his arrest. Investigators describe him as the former Chief Financial Officer an ALBANY company that built its reputation on commercial and industrial electrical work. In charging documents, troopers allege that Stevens used that senior role to gain unfettered access to bank accounts, vendor payments, and internal ledgers, the basic plumbing of any company’s finances.
The firm itself, A.E. Rosen Electrical Co., is a long‑standing player in the Capital Region, founded by Ed Rosen in 1977 and still based in the Albany area. Reporting identifies the business as an Upstate New York electrical company that has operated for decades on contracts across the region, including work in and around Cohoes and other nearby communities. The company’s history as a family‑rooted contractor, built up over nearly half a century, is part of what makes the allegations so jarring: a trusted insider is now accused of exploiting that legacy and the confidence placed in him by ownership and staff.
How investigators say more than $4 million disappeared over five years
According to state police and court filings, the alleged fraud did not unfold in a single brazen theft but in a steady stream of transactions that, taken together, topped $4 million. Authorities say the former CFO quietly diverted company funds over roughly five years, using his control over accounting systems to disguise the missing money. One investigative summary describes how a former chief financial officer in Upstate New York allegedly stole more than $4 million from an electrical company over a multiyear period, with troopers in Latham leading the case against the former chief financial…