Former Terry Fator Employees Accused of $1M Theft

Terry Fator is a famous an American stand-up comedian, impressionist, ventriloquist and America’s Got Talent winner. He was recognized as the Best Las Vegas Strip Headliner by Las Vegas Weekly for three consecutive years and his ventriloquism shows are famous across the globe. As announced by KLAS, one of Fator’s former employees was accused of stealing more than $1 million from his business.

The latest report cites documents, revealing that Vincent Souza, the former chief operations officer for Fator’s business, is facing four counts of theft of more than $3,500. Allegations against the former senior-level employee claim that he increased his salary without authorization and stole money through credit cards belonging to the business.

In addition to Souza, a second employee is also reportedly involved in the crimes against Fator. The name of the employee was redacted in the documents, and it is currently unclear if she is up against any charges for her alleged involvement in the crimes.

Back in October 2021, Metro police were contacted by Fator who filed a complaint over embezzlement against Souza and the other former employee that was reportedly involved in payroll. The famous ventriloquist explained that his business did not have a formally established process for increasing employee pay. However, he argued that Souza’s remuneration in 2015 was $150,000 but in 2017, it jumped to $200,000. Additionally, the second employee also had a significant rise in her pay that increased from $65,000 in 2015 to some $140,000 in 2017. Overall, Fator claimed that Souza was able to embezzle more than $1 million which was used for different expenditures.

Stolen Money Was Used for Trips, Hockey Tickets

Souza allegedly used money from Fator’s business for a downpayment on a car, hockey tickets, as well as trips and luxury vacations. Investigators claim that he “he used the company credit card for a vacation to Hawaii, which was unauthorized, along with trips to Europe and Disneyland.”

Upon accessing records of the Las Vegas Raiders and Golden Knights, investigators reportedly uncovered that Souza spent tens of thousands of dollars for tickets and other expenditures. He also allegedly paid installments for his home.

Reportedly Souza used funds from his account which were then charged back to Fator’s business. Such transactions wouldn’t be needed considering that he was granted a corporate credit card for the business. The second employee allegedly also had a company credit card that was used for fraudulent transactions.