BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- Yolanda Serrano worked for the Shah family's Southeast Petro Distributors for 17 years, earning enough trust that she had access to all company accounts and was regarded as a family member. As comptroller, it was Serrano's job to deposit checks from customers and to transfer funds among money market funds and other accounts.

A month ago, Mike Shah, the Cocoa-based company's president, found evidence that his trust may have been misplaced when he discovered several checks had not been deposited, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

Instead, the money -- about $12 million -- went into Serrano's own company bank accounts, Shah testified at a bail hearing for Serrano on Wednesday morning.

Serrano, 44, is being held at the Brevard County jail on a $12.5 million bond, the amount she is accused of embezzling over five years from Southeast Petro, which distributes oil and gasoline throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

Brevard County sheriff's agents arrested her at her riverside house in Rockledge April 7, a week after she returned from a trip to Japan.

She is charged with grand theft of more than $100,000 and scheming to defraud. She has pleaded not guilty.

Serrano's lawyer, Kenneth Weaver, asked that her bail be reduced so she could help with her own defense.

But after about an hour of testimony from prosecution witnesses, Judge Lisa Davidson denied the reduction.

Serrano has too many contacts outside the United States -- in Colombia, where she was born and still has relatives, in India, where her husband is from, and in Dubai, where her son lives.

Serrano's husband and five other family members sat in the courtroom during the proceedings. Serrano stood quietly in a gray jail jumper while lawyers discussed her fate.

The Shahs said they are disappointed.

"We are deeply hurt by the violation of trust by someone we treated as a family member," said Summit Shah, vice president of operations for Southeast Petro.

He said the theft won't affect the company's finances, however.

His father, Mike Shah, started the company with one gas station in 1980. It has grown to a major distributor with reported revenues of $209 million annually.

Serrano had been its comptroller for the last five years, Shah testified. He wasn't aware of any problems until March 12, when his accountant told him that several checks he signed had not been deposited, he said. Shah asked what happened to the checks. The accountant asked Serrano, and she said she'd get back to him.

Twenty-four hours later, she reported that "someone made a mistake" and she'd fix it, Shah said.

A subsequent investigation by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, begun the Monday after Easter, found she had deposited those checks and about $1 million during the past six months into accounts of two companies she owned, Blue Consulting and Sunshine Food Marts, sheriff's Agent Tim Anliker testified.

He reviewed another 18 months and found another $3 million transferred to those companies.

Next, he reviewed the previous five years and discovered that more than $12 million had been transferred.

Authorities seized $455,000 from Serrano's bank accounts. Prosecutors said more than $11 million was still unaccounted for.

Defense attorney Weaver said Serrano has cooperated with the investigation and that she had come back from Japan and had turned over more than $8 million worth of property and other assets over to the Shahs. County records confirm three properties in Rockledge and Titusville were deeded over from Serrano and her husband to East Coast Petro, which is owned by the Shahs, earlier this month.

But Shah testified that Serrano only returned when her access to the Southeast Petro accounts was cut off. And he placed the value of the property much lower.

The FBI also is looking into the case to see if federal charges are warranted. If any money was transferred out of state, it could mean federal charges for Serrano. "We are going to continue to work at resolving this matter," Weaver said.