BURLINGTON — A White River Junction man tied to a major embezzlement case who had agreed to plead guilty in federal court to facilitating the illegal distribution of opioids between July 2012 and August 2018 was found dead on Monday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, public records show.

Jeffrey “Iffy” Koloski, 52, had signed a nine-page plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office five days earlier indicating he had “knowingly and intentionally caused the use of communication facilities in facilitating felony distributions of heroin and oxycodone” in “Vermont and elsewhere,” according to federal court records in Burlington.

Koloski’s body was located next to a vehicle in a parking area off Old River Road in White River Junction on Monday evening, according to Hartford Police Chief Phil Kasten. His death certificate described his manner of death as suicide.

Koloski was scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Rutland on May 16, the same day that former Quechee resident Ryan Wall, the former operator of a West Lebanon payroll processing service for small businesses, is set to appear in Burlington for a major embezzlement, gun and drug case, records show.

Wall, 41, has been charged with embezzling $1.2 million from clients of West Lebanon-based TSBS — also known as Twin State Business Services — through wire fraud, according to federal court records. He also faces a felony charge he possessed three firearms — two rifles and a pistol — while being an unlawful drug user and addicted to oxycodone, heroin and crack cocaine last August, the indictment said.

In bankruptcy filings submitted in January, TSBS said that it found “hundreds of irregular transfers” between 2012 and 2018 totaling more than $750,000, which had been made payable to Wall or his associates.

Wall’s indictment alleges that he “also issued, without authorization, hundreds of checks to third parties. Those third parties then cashed the checks and gave the money back to Wall or used the funds to buy drugs that were given to Wall.”

A handwritten accounting review TSBS completed as part of the bankruptcy filing indicates that a “Jeff Koloski” received payments from TSBS totaling about $101,000 between January 2017 and August 2018, in sums ranging from $280 to $2,405.

Michael Fisher, the Hanover-based bankruptcy attorney representing TSBS, said he did not know what the checks were ostensibly for.

Ryan Wall’s former wife, Vanessa Wall, who is a manager at TSBS, declined comment. Vanessa Wall’s parents started TSBS, which does business as AccounTax USA, in 1997. Wall joined the firm and started the payroll services division in 2012 and was fired in late 2018 when embezzlement was suspected, according to the bankruptcy filings. Wall is the only person blamed in the embezzlement indictment.

Koloski was cooperating with federal authorities in the drug distribution case and had agreed to waive formal indictment by a grand jury. Instead, he signed off on pleading guilty to the single drug charge filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory L. Waples.

According to his obituary, he worked at the former P&C grocery store and then the Post Office’s processing center in White River Junction for several years before becoming self-employed.

When asked about the Ryan Wall embezzlement case and Koloski, Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill said it was a federal case.

“That whole embezzlement case and Koloski is with the FBI,” Cahill said on Friday.

The indictment in Wall’s case maintains that he embezzled funds by withholding payroll taxes intended for the Internal Revenue Service and state tax departments in Vermont and New Hampshire. He personally pocketed money intended to be forwarded to the government accounts, the indictment said.

The alleged embezzlement scheme has left scores of Upper Valley businesses on the hook for tax payments that were made to TSBS but never passed on to the IRS, the indictment said.

Norwich-based defense lawyer George Ostler, who helped negotiate Koloski’s plea deal in the drug distribution case, co-signed the agreement under Koloski’s signature, confirming that Ostler believed Koloski understood the agreement and was “entering into the agreement voluntarily and knowingly.” Attempts to reach Ostler on Friday were unsuccessful.

The signed plea agreement said Koloski faced a potential of up to four years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine and being placed on supervised release for up to one year when discharged from prison.

Waples, who was prosecuting both the Wall and Koloski cases, referred inquiries to U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan, who did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Instead, an office spokesman said there would be no comment. He said the office also would not define what “communications facilities” Koloski was charged with using in distributing heroin and oxycodone.

Koloski’s wife, Susan Koloski, declined to comment this week.

Ryan Wall, who previously declined to comment for earlier stories, did not return a message seeking comment on Friday afternoon.