United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion has sentenced an accountant from Pennsylvania to federal prison after he admitted guilt to embezzling over $1.5m from his ex-employer.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (USAO-MDPA) took to X Tuesday with news of Lawrence Malachefski’s 30-month prison sentence the day before:
A USAO-MDPA news release stated the 39-year-old ex-financial controller of a heating, ventilation, and A/C business based in the city of Wilkes-Barre milked the firm out of over $1.5m between the months of March and June 2023.
According to the Times Leader, Malachefski spent the money mostly on “online sports betting on brands including FanDuel, Barstool Sports, DraftKings, and Unibet.” The 30-month jail sentence under the charge of wire fraud also included a three-year term of supervised release.
Judge Mannion also ordered Malachefski to pay $1,586,557.45 in restitution to his former employer.
Accountants breaking the law to fund their gambling habits is nothing new and not confined to the US. In 2022, lawyers of an Australian accountant, who had already confessed to stealing AU$1.5m ($1.0m) from his ex-employers to bankroll his gambling and drug habit, tried to get him off the hook by claiming he had a bipolar disorder. In 2019, UK courts sentenced British accountant Kathleen Weir, 40, to five years in prison after she stole over ￡400,000 ($503,000) from her employers to gamble.
