The former chief financial officer of a Salem company tried to sabotage his employer by embezzling money, stealing the business model and planning to woo away employees and customers, federal officials say.

Roy Alonzo Dickinson is accused in a recently unsealed federal indictment of charging nearly $100,000 in personal items to Couvrette Building Systems and failing to pay employment taxes for Couvrette to the Internal Revenue Service.

Dickinson has already agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in a related civil settlement, but Ed Couvrette, who founded the company 31 years ago, said that won't be enough.

"It's a very destructive experience to go through both to a company and the community of people who work for that company," said Couvrette, who employs between 100 and 125 people at his Electric Road business.

Roanoke attorney Tony Anderson, who is representing Dickinson, said his client is looking forward to defending himself against the allegations.

According to the civil lawsuit, Ed Couvrette co-developed the first drive-up automated teller machine in 1985. He then went into business designing, manufacturing and installing kiosks and other enclosures for ATMs across the country.

In November 2001, Couvrette's then-wife encouraged him to hire Dickinson, who was her best friend's husband and lived in Yorba Linda, Calif., at the time.

Court records claim that within two years, Dickinson and two other Couvrette employees had developed a business plan for a company called ATM Products Express, which was nearly identical to Couvrette's.

No one besides Dickinson is charged in the indictment.

Although ATM Products Express never got up and running, the indictment claims that a management agreement was circulated and co-conspirators talked about what to do if Ed Couvrette found out.

Over the course of several months in 2004, Dickinson charged more than $97,000 to Couvrette Building Systems and turned in invoices as business expenses, the indictment claims.

Officials say Dickinson put charges on his own credit card and the company credit card and wrote company checks for personal items.

He is accused of buying a TiVo, remodeling his home, spending nearly $1,500 at a wine cellar and paying for recreational vehicle rentals, art and rental cars.

Also, records claim, he bought laptop computers, Virginia Tech football tickets, NASCAR tickets, furniture and a $6,850 Rolex watch.

In June 2004, prosecutors say, Dickinson sent his wife and two children to Key West, Fla., even buying a television set that he left in a hotel room there. When he returned, the indictment says, he created an invoice indicating that the money had been spent on catering services.

Court documents also claim that Dickinson used Couvrette company money to pay thousands in personal property taxes on an apartment building in Corona, Calif.

Dickinson reportedly tried again in 2005 to create a nearly identical company to Couvrette Building Systems. He and several co-conspirators, who were not charged, called the business Nationwide Service Solutions.

That business, too, never performed any work, perhaps because a federal judge in Roanoke entered a restraining order and an injunction against Dickinson and the new company after Ed Couvrette filed the civil suit in April 2005.

But Dickinson did try to coax Diebold Inc. to agree to do business with Nationwide Service Solutions in January 2005, officials say.

Diebold, a leading ATM provider, had a business agreement with Couvrette Business Systems. Dickinson e-mailed a Diebold employee asking for support should he start his own company and hire away the majority of the Couvrette service department, the indictment claims.

The civil complaint states that after Dickinson was fired from Couvrette Building Systems in March 2005, he e-mailed Couvrette's clients and said they could contact him at Nationwide Service Solutions.

In the indictment, Dickinson is also accused of threatening a witness.

Twice, officials said, Dickinson told a co-conspirator that he would "make EC unavailable to testify." Later, Dickinson allegedly said he "could not believe the government was taking his 'drunken comments' seriously."

Although the indictment does not fully identify the witness, Ed Couvrette claims it was him and says he was disturbed by the threat.

"It makes one alter one's daily routine, that's for sure," he said.

Finally, Dickinson is accused of wire fraud in connection with the Corona property. In October 2005, despite listing it as his sole significant asset in civil settlement agreements, Dickinson donated the property to a church and took a vow of poverty, the indictment states.

In exchange, the church gave Dickinson more than $400,000 in living expenses that he failed to report to the court, documents show.

Dickinson turned himself in to authorities in California on Nov. 2 and was released on a $500,000 secured bond, Anderson said.

He is working in the financial industry in Utah while he awaits trial.