A former senior accountant for a construction company located in Chicago was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for embezzling company funds.
Richard Mandarino, 46, of Scarborough, Ontario, pleaded guilty last year to a federal wire fraud charge. In an order issued on July 18, U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger sentenced Mandarino to two years and two months in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution to his victims.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Mandarino entered false payment requests in the unnamed construction company’s accounting system, causing checks to be issued to vendor companies for goods and services that Mandarino knew were never provided. He then converted those payments for his and others’ personal use. Officials say he concealed the thefts by creating fictitious credits and offsets in the construction company’s accounting system.
Mandarino committed the fraud from 2015 to 2017 while he resided in Canada and worked on the Chicago construction company’s Canadian business projects. As a result of his conduct, Mandarino caused losses totaling more than $1.8 million.
“Defendant engaged in a deceptive and calculated scheme against his employer who trusted him with its finances,” the government argued in its sentencing memorandum. “The scheme was complex and multilayered.”
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Tags: Accounting, embezzlement
