Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Massachusetts

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, October 14, 2016

Accountant Pleads Guilty to Stealing $3.5 Million from Employer

BOSTON – A former accountant for an investment advising company pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with a fraud scheme in which he stole more than $3.5 million from his employer. 

Gary Tiffany II, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.  U.S. District Court Senior Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Jan. 16, 2017.

Tiffany was responsible for maintaining his employer’s checkbook and making electronic payments on the company’s account to vendors and for office expenses and reimbursements.  He was also responsible for downloading monthly bank statements and emailing them to his supervisor to be used to reconcile his employer’s accounts.  From about April 2011 through November 2015, Tiffany made wire transfers totaling more than $3 million from his employer’s accounts to his personal accounts, and he forged signatures on about 46 checks payable to himself totaling about $456,000.  Tiffany concealed his scheme by making false entries in his employer’s electronic accounting system and altering bank statements he obtained online before forwarding them to his supervisor.  Tiffany obtained a total of about $3,557,304 from his employer’s accounts, nearly all of which he used for his own benefit. 

The wire fraud statute provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000, and restitution.  The monetary transactions statute provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000, and restitution.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Office; Shelly Binkowski, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Balthazard of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.