Former CEO of nonprofit gets year in prison for theft

Published 8:16 pm Thursday, December 2, 2010

EVERETT — At 68, Kenneth Storkel could be enjoying retirement.

He had a long productive career spanning more than 35 years at the Boeing Co. before taking over a nonprofit Mukilteo company that helps disabled workers.

On Thursday, the former president and chief executive officer of Diversified Industrial Services was sentenced to a year in prison after admitting he stole from the company.

“Obviously, I owe a lot of apologies to a lot of folks,” he told a Snohomish County Superior Court judge Thursday.

Storkel and Sandra Adams Ball, the company’s former finance director, received the same one-year prison term. She was sentenced in September.

Together, the pair took cash advances totaling more than $110,0000. That not only was in violation of company policy, they also failed to repay the money.

He pocketed more than $60,000. She took about $47,000.

The sentence went beyond the standard sentencing range for first-degree theft. Judge David Kurtz justified the longer term because of the amount of money taken and Storkel’s position of trust. Investigators said records of the cash advances were kept separate from the payroll record book. The damning documents were stuffed in Adams Ball’s filing cabinet, court records show.

Storkel blamed his downfall on a gambling addiction.

He and Adams Ball left the company in a financial mess, officials said.

“I was mortified at what I had found,” said Tiffany Mack, who took over as the company’s president and CEO after the pair was fired.

He called Storkel charming, cunning and manipulative.

Besides the theft, the pair failed to pay more than $100,000 in payroll taxes.

“We almost lost our building,” Mack told the judge.

It also has been difficult dealing with the bad publicity. The company has been around for more than 40 years and employs about 125 workers, many with developmental disabilities.

Gilbert Duncan, a Boeing colleague of Storkel who also is related by the marriage of their children, urged the judge to be lenient.

“Gambling took over his life” and crushed him financially, Duncan said.

When Duncan’s wife died unexpectedly, Storkel came to his aid and has helped him care for his 12-year-old son, he said.

Judge Kurtz called the case “tragic on many different levels.”

Ultimately, the judge ruled the crime warranted prison.

“As the president, the buck stopped with you,” Kurtz said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.