News Archive
Minimum seven years jail for Tishman embezzler
Released on 19/08/2008
A former Tishman project accountant will be sentenced to between seven and 14 years in prison for diverting US$2.8m into his own bank accounts during a university research centre project in New York.
John Hoeffner, 47, pleaded guilty on 4th August to Grand Larceny in the First Degree and Grand Larceny in the Second Degree. He is due to be sentenced next month and can expect to receive seven to 14 years in prison. He must also pay restitution in the amount of US$1.4m.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, Hoeffner forged vendor invoices and altered vendor cheques while assigned to the Tishman construction project at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, between March 31, 2006 and May 13, 2008. He had been with Tishman since 2004.
As a project accountant, Hoeffner was responsible for receiving invoices for payment from vendors and subcontractors, preparing cheques for signature by senior Tishman managers, and distributing the cheques to the payees.
The investigation revealed that Hoeffner incorporated a phony company with a name similar to a legitimate vendor to carry out his scheme. He systematically faked invoices and submitted them to Tishman with payment cheques to be signed. Once the cheques were issued, he modified them, making them payable to his similarly-named company, and deposited them into accounts that he controlled.
Hoeffner altered and deposited a total of 99 such cheques. In addition, the defendant changed eight cheques issued to another legitimate vendor by adding his own surname to the cheques so he could deposit them and steal the money. The 107 cheques altered and deposited by the defendant totaled $2,801,578.75. The theft was discovered by a Tishman auditor during a review of the company’s various projects.
The defendant, who was arrested on June 13, 2008, waived his right to appeal. His sentencing is scheduled for September 17, 2008.
According to US construction magazine Engineering News-Record (ENR), Hoeffner cheated another former employer, Bovis Lend Lease, out of US$372,000 using similar tactics.
