From the U.S. Attorney:
FORMER ACCOUNTANT FOR CHICAGO CONSTRUCTION COMPANY SENTENCED TO MORE THAN TWO YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR $1.8 MILLION EMBEZZLEMENT
CHICAGO — A former senior accountant for a Chicago construction company has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for embezzling company funds.
RICHARD A. MANDARINO entered false payment requests in the construction company’s accounting system, causing checks to be issued to vendor companies for goods and services that Mandarino knew were never provided.
Mandarino then converted those payments to his and others’ personal use.
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.
Mandarino, 46, of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty last year to a federal wire fraud charge.
In an order issued on Friday, 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.
The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik K. Raman and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Yusef Dale and Patrick J. King, Jr.
“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.”
