A local doctor is learning to trust again, after an employee embezzled nearly half a million dollars from his company. Why he says the bank is partly at fault.

Doctor Russel Foulk is an endocrinologist and the owner of the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine. He's pressing charges against a former employee, suspected of embezzling over $480,000 from his company.

Now he's also considering a civil suit against Bank of America. doctor foulk feels that bank of America was negligent...and should have noticed there was something suspicious, before he caught wind of the embezzlement. Foulk says his story could be an important lesson for any local, small business owner.

Doctor Foulk's infertility clinic helps thousands of local men and women with reproductive problems every year. Every time he saves a life or performs a surgery, insurance companies will send his office their portion of the payment.

Seven years ago, Foulk hired a woman named Judy Sorensen to take charge of all of his business's finances. He says Sorensen was supposed to deposit the checks into a company account.

"It's supposed to be stamped with a deposit only stamp and put into Bank of the West. She would stamp it with a return address label and sign it and then deposit it into her own bank account," said Foulk.

Foulk says over seven years, Sorensen used this method hundreds, maybe thousands of times. He believes she stole nearly $500,000 from the business, about 10 percent of the profit. Foulk says Sorensen deposited the money at two local Bank of America Branches, always using an ATM.

"Why they allowed that, I don't know."

Foulk says the bank should have never accepted third party checks that were written to his business...and then signed over to a personal account.

"It's absolutely illegal. I've since tried this with my own banks, Bank of the West and First Independent Bank where I would put in my company checks into my personal account. Both banks said, no, you can't do that."

Foulk says he lost his trust in humankind when Sorensen stole from his business...and now he's lost trust in the bank system.

"I created systems in place to prevent theft, but it relied on the bank to do their job and the bank did not."

The Washoe County District Attorney's office says Sorensen surrendered to authorities Thursday morning. She now faces two charges of embezzlement. Her attorney declined to comment.

A Bank of America representative tells me the company is dedicated to protecting their customers from fraud, but would not make any further comment on the case.