My question involves business law in the state of: CA

6 months ago I went in business with a guy who owned a gym. I was supposed to be a business partner and I even invested money. During the course of 6 months the gym never had enough money to pay me, so I paid myself a little at a time when there was extra money. So over the course of 6 months the gym had built a balance of money that was owed to me to about 13,000

In addition, a couple months ago the bank accounts started getting levied. So I offered to have the billing deposits put in to my other business account so that they wouldn't take the money and we couldn't pay our bills and payroll. My partner agreed. He signed the transfer form and I sent to the billing company and they started making the deposits to my account. I told him this was only temporary that he needed to get everything straigtened out within a couple of months.

A couple months went by and he did nothing to repair the situation. I had enough. I decided to leave. During the last month I paid myself some of the money back that the gym had owed me because I knew that once I left I would never get it. By the time I left it still owed me about 8000.

My partner wanted to start a new company and switch everything over. I told him that I decided to leave. He was very unhappy about this.

So after I left, he called the billing company and said that he never authorized the transfer of money to my account. Which is a lie, he signed the paper so I had hoped that would check the signature.

They attempted to reverse the deposits that was made to my accounts. The money was already gone, I had done payroll, paid some bills and used the rest to pay myself back.

Now he is stating the he never authorized it and is further accusing me of stealing.

Can I get in trouble for paying myself money that was owed to me?

I assume that the fraud department will do their due diligence and check the signatures before they go bringing some BS case against me right?

I kept track of all monies paid to me. Sometimes it was cash, check or bank transfer. But there is record of all of it.

Do I really have anything to worry about? The thought of being falsely accused of theft is making me crazy, I can't sleep. I have been in business for many years with many different partner and have never been accused of such a thing. If he continues to push this should I bring a suit against him? Defamation of character, money he owes me, stress that I incurred while working there having to deal with all the financial problems.

Any help would be appreciated.