District Attorney Jim Martin announced on Wednesday that charges are being filed against a couple from Allentown who have allegedly stolen over $1 million from the wife's employer.

Pamela J. Kern, 43, and Gary W. Kern, 49, are accused of stealing $1,436,037 from Ott Consulting Inc. between 2006 and February 2016. Pamela had worked as the sole bookkeeper for the Emmaus-based civil engineering and landscape architectural firm since 2004, and had handled the invoice and expense payments.The investigation of the couple was led by Lehigh County Detective Gerald Procanyn and Lehigh County's Eighth Investigating grand jury, with help from the Emmaus Police Department.On Feb. 19,Ott Consulting Inc. President Jeffrey T. Ott found that payments were being made to five different credit cards, despite his business using only one card. All of the payments originated from the Ott business account at Provident Bank and were processed by Pamela Kern.Kern had allegedly been manipulating figures in the Ott Consulting books and processing Internet payments to credit cards which were under the couple's names. Over 464 payments were made to five credit card accounts from Bank of America, Chase Bank USA, Citibank and Discover Financial Services.During the review of the Kerns' six Wells Fargo Bank account transactions between 2009 and April 2016, it was found that none of their credit card payments came from any of the accounts held under their names. The payout amounts from the Ott account were found to match the credit card payments made to the Kerns' accounts.Each of the accused is being charged with four counts of dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activities. In addition, each is charged with a single count of theft by unlawful taking or disposition, theft by deception, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, receiving stolen property, and criminal conspiracy. All counts are first-degree felonies.