Former corporate executive pleads guilty to $30 million embezzlement
The former chief financial officer of a Middleboro shoe company pleaded guilty on Wednesday to embezzling $30 million from the company in a long-running scheme to support a lavish lifestyle for himself and another person.
Richard Hajjar, 64, of Duxbury, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions and filing a false tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. If U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton accepts his plea at his Sept. 15 sentencing, Hajjar faces 48 to 74 months in prison and three years of supervised release, said his lawyer, former Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley.
From at least 2011 to October 2019, when he was fired by the company, Hajjar embezzled money by writing checks to himself from company bank accounts and transferring money to his own accounts and to a person not named in court documents. In all, Hajjar embezzled about $30 million, which he used on items including private flights to the Caribbean and diamond jewelry for a person identified in court records only as “Individual 1.”
On July 6, 2016, Hajjar wrote himself a check for $900,000, which he used toward the purchase of a New York City condominium for Individual 1, according to court documents. In a civil suit pending in Suffolk Superior Court, Alden Shoe Co. is seeking repayment from Hajjar’s alleged girlfriend and former WCVB anchor Bianca de la Garza, claiming he used the stolen cash to buy her gifts and invest in her insolvent production companies.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/05/05/former-corporate-executive-pleads-guilty-to-30-million-embezzlement-scheme/
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