KUTV) A Utah County company says one of its own employees nearly drove it out of business, by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to a federal indictment, Bruce McKean Strong, 47, embezzled $800,000 from Sonic Plastics in Lindon, Utah while working there from 2005 to 2013.

If found guilty, Strong could face up to 20 years behind bars.

Sonic Plastics makes thousands of different kinds of plastic bottles every day out of his warehouse.

“It was devastating someone that we’ve known for so long,” said Melanie Snow about Strong’s alleged crime. “How does the guy sleep at night? How does he do this to somebody? I think he needs jail time. He has no accountability there is no remorse.”

According to the federal charging documents: “Strong created false and fraudulent invoices under the name Grand Design, LLC and submitted or caused these invoices to be submitted to Sonic Plastics for payment.”

Attorney Kendra Shirey, who represents the Snows, said Strong was very good at what he did and that’s why no one was able to catch it.

“In that role as general manager he was left to run the company and he handled all aspects of the company,” she said. “These schemes were very artful in the way that they were done and it ultimately made it very difficult except under close scrutiny for anyone to recognize that there was anything inappropriate going on.”

Shirey says she estimates Strong allegedly stole more than $2 million from the company, but says charges could only reflect the $800,000 dollar amount. “It’s very likely that he’s going to do this again and there will be other victims of his schemes.”

But Brett Tolman, former U.S. Attorney for Utah, said there is another side to this story. Tolman, who is now a private attorney, represents Strong.

“Bruce is a good man. People are presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.”

Tolman says Strong paid for plastics out of his own company, Grand Design, and was only getting reimbursed.

“Bruce worked for many years providing plastic for this company and we think he will be able to show that he provided the plastic they negotiated,” said Tolman. “Because if that plastic was delivered, he was entitled to have $800,000. It’s not like somebody who opened up the till of a company and took money.”

But Shirey says there is no evidence that plastic material was ever provided through the name Grand Design.

Tolman says he looks forward to his day in court when Strong can give his side of the story and he wonders way this is a federal case when it started out and still remains a civil lawsuit.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said $800,000 is no small amount of money and is worthy of a federal prosecution.