The general manager of two Traverse City Mancino's restaurants has been charged with embezzling over $130,000 from the company since 2019.

The Michigan State Police post was contacted in January by the owner of the restaurants to investigate the alleged embezzlement. The suspect, 54-year-old James Warren Lake from Traverse City, is the general manager of the Chums Corner and West Bay stores. He has been with Mancino’s for thirty years.

A "catastrophic difference" was noticed between the two stores in the amount of an rewards program utilized, according to an MSP release. "A further investigation revealed a single computer was responsible for over 99 percent of all the reward program transactions, and this computer was located in Lake’s office," the release states. "The rewards were being back entered into transactions, and cash was being removed from the tills to correlate the rewards being entered."

Lake is accused of embezzling over $130,000 since 2019. He was interviewed and arrested on March 1 and lodged in the Grand Traverse County Jail. Lake was arraigned in 86th District Court on one count of embezzlement over $100,000 and habitual offender third offense. He was given a $25,000 PR bond. His next scheduled court appearance is on March 24.