of her account. No one answered. "There are some horrible people in the world," Edwards said.

Bottinelli founded Axis in 2004. Its role was simple -- to hold money that employees set aside for health care expenses in a trust account and process their payments to doctors, dentists and others.

There was barely any oversight. Bottinelli's theft was all too easy given what prosecutors called "the vacuum of a virtually unregulated business."

The company initially prospered, developing a nationwide clientele. Bottinelli moved into a million-dollar home on Southwest Buena Vista Drive in Portland's West Hills. He married a prominent architect's daughter and began moving in all the right circles. He joined the Waverly Country Club, the Multnomah Athletic Club and the University Club.

Around 2009, Axis employees started seeing less of Bottinelli.He simply stopped coming to the office every day. They figured he was working remotely.

"Even though I worked for the guy for 10 years, I feel like I hardly knew him," said Jennifer Robare. "He was distracted, aloof."

On March 19, 2014, Bottinelli made a rare appearance at the Axis office and informed his six stunned workers he was shutting the company down. "He just walked in with cashier's checks and paid us off for the week, Robare said. "We had half an hour to leave."

There were no cashier's checks for Axis clients. One by one, across the country, they tried unsuccessfully to retrieve their money.

Disabled employees of Goodwill Industries of South Texas -- hired to work the mailroom of a U.S. Army base in Corpus Christi -- called