Perrysburg, Ohio – A Wood County man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after admitting to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Toledo-based computer technology firm he was entrusted to lead.
Blake Underwood, 45, of Perrysburg, received a 24-month prison sentence from U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary following his guilty plea to one count of wire fraud in May. After completing his sentence, Underwood will serve three additional years under supervised release.
Underwood had been employed by Nemsys, LLC, an information technology support company headquartered in Toledo. When the business owners moved to Florida to concentrate on launching a second company, Underwood was promoted to CEO and entrusted with overseeing Nemsys operations.
However, according to court records, from December 2019 to April 2023, Underwood took advantage of that trust and devised a long-running scheme to funnel company funds toward his personal lifestyle. Though he was not authorized to do so, Underwood used money allocated for revitalizing a historic property in Toledo to instead buy construction materials for his own home.
His misuse of company finances went far beyond building supplies. In 2023, as the owners started questioning the company’s worsening financial condition, they uncovered that Underwood had been secretly using Nemsys funds for years to cover personal credit card bills, acquire vehicles, join golf clubs, and purchase jewelry—none of which had any legitimate business purpose.
“Underwood used Nemsys funds intended for the revitalization of a historic Toledo property to purchase building supplies for his personal home,” court documents stated. His fraudulent activity persisted until company leadership began probing into the reasons behind Nemsys’ declining profits, ultimately revealing the full scope of the financial misconduct.
The sentence underscores the consequences of abusing executive authority for personal gain, especially when small businesses place trust in individuals to act in the company’s best interests.
