CANYON CITY — Michael Adam Burnham, 42, of McMinnville, a former accounting manager at Silvies Valley Ranch, is suspected of embezzling money from his former employer and has been charged with multiple counts of theft totaling about $34,000.

Burnham was indicted Feb. 20 on two counts of aggravated first-degree theft, two counts of first-degree theft and one count of second-degree theft, all stemming from incidents that took place on Oct. 10, according to court documents. Burnham is scheduled to appear for a plea hearing on July 10 at Grant County Circuit Court.

Burnham signed a release agreement March 21 in which he agreed to appear at all court appearances, advise the court of his whereabouts at all times and not leave the state of Oregon.

A call to his attorney for comment was not immediately returned.

Jacob Chorak, formerly of John Day and now residing in Florida, was a line cook at Silvies Valley Ranch from April to October 2022 and said Burnham was responsible for accounting, payroll and inventory at the resort. He would often see Burnham overseeing the handling of tips and checking the point-of-sale registers.

Burnham was relieved of his duties at the Grant County resort after his suspected misconduct was discovered, Chorak said.

“Everybody in a way found out what happened,” Chorak said. “All I know is it was a nice chunk of cash gone and that it really hurt Silvies. … If I lost 30 grand, I’d be (upset) too.”

Chorak said when word got around at the resort about the thefts, he was worried about getting paid. The resort, he said, pulled its chief financial officer from Portland to make sure financial matters got sorted and employees were paid appropriately.

Silvies Valley Ranch owner Scott Campbell “made sure everybody got their end-of-year bonuses and all their overtime raises,” Chorak said. “Everything was kosher. It was just a big dent in financial matters.”