Design and Construction Report staff writer
A former senior accountant for a Chicago construction firm has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $1.8 million in company funds.
Richard A. Mandarino, 46, of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada was sentenced Friday to two years and two months in prison by U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger. He was also ordered to pay full restitution to the victims.
The US Attorney’s Office news release did not name the contractor but the indictiment from August, 2022 says Mandarino committed the fraud from 2015 to 2017 while he resided in Canada and worked on The Walsh Group’s Canadian business projects.
Federal prosecutors say he carried out the fraud while working remotely from Canada between 2015 and 2017.
Mandarino admitted to entering false payment requests into the company’s accounting system, resulting in checks being issued to vendors for goods and services that were never delivered. He then diverted the funds for personal use—both his own and others’—and covered up the thefts by creating fictitious credits and offsets in the accounting system.
“Defendant engaged in a deceptive and calculated scheme against his employer who trusted him with its finances,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “The scheme was complex and multilayered.”
Mandarino pleaded guilty last year to a federal wire fraud charge. His sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik K. Raman and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Yusef Dale and Patrick J. King, Jr.
