Little claims employee stole millions

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 | 11:32 a.m.

The Metro Police fraud and forgery unit is investigating a complaint filed by comedian Rich Little alleging that an employee stole up to several million dollars from him.

Little, a Las Vegas resident, filed the complaint Dec. 8. Police said they are looking into "an employee integrity issue" but declined to comment further.

According to one of Little's business associates, Little believes a woman who worked for him for 10 years had credit cards made up in her name for Little's accounts, regularly embezzled money from Little and forged hundreds of checks.

The amount of the loss is thought to be in the millions, but police said they couldn't confirm that.

"The purpose and scope of the investigation is to determine what methods were used and how much their loss is," Detective David West said.

After getting married in October, Little and his wife looked through their finances and discovered numerous improprieties.

The employee, who was fired two weeks ago, could not be reached for comment.

"She was my right arm. She knew me better than I did. This is a terrible thing," Little said Monday. "In life you have to watch yourself. There was no indication that anything was wrong ... She is now hiding from the world."

Little said an auditor as well as police are going through the arduous task of sorting through paperwork.

Little became perhaps the world's most well-known celebrity impersonator with his dead-on impersonations of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, performed in the 1970s as a regular on Dean Martin's Celebrity Roast.

Little said he will "play the Suncoast again the weekend of January 17th. I have to. I need the money!""