N.Y. compliance officer charged for embezzling $200K from employer

A New York State Supreme Court indictment charged Tadashi Dumas, of Brooklyn, with one count of grand larceny in the second degree and three counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. announced in a press release Wednesday.

Dumas allegedly abused his position by diverting funds meant for retaining outside counsel to pay for personal expenses, including tuition payments and a self-sponsored magazine article. In another alleged instance, he sent money directly to his own bank account.

The details: From April 2021 to December 2021, Dumas siphoned more than $200,000 from his employer by submitting falsified invoices with fraudulent wiring instructions, according to court documents and on-the-record statements.

Two of the fraudulent invoices, totaling $60,500, were allegedly used to pay Dumas’s tuition at the University of Pennsylvania, where he enrolled in a management course. He then allegedly sought reimbursement from his employer, with the company paying him an additional $30,000 for tuition it already covered.

In July 2021, Dumas allegedly submitted an invoice for nearly $9,000 and directed the funds to a publishing company for a self-sponsored magazine article about himself.

From October 2021 to December 2021, he allegedly submitted four invoices totaling more than $113,000 that wired money directly to a bank account in his name under the guise of payments to another law firm.

“As alleged, the very person tasked with ensuring his employer’s compliance with laws and regulations broke them time after time to line his pockets at the company’s expense,” Bragg said in the release. “We hold people in positions of power—including sworn attorneys with solemn ethical obligations—to the highest standards and will not tolerate fraud at New York businesses’ expense.”