Former McElroy Deutsch CFO faces criminal charges for alleged $1.5M embezzlement

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Former McElroy Deutsch CFO faces criminal…

Criminal Justice Former McElroy Deutsch CFO faces criminal charges for alleged $1.5M embezzlement

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 15, 2024, 2:10 pm CST

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The former chief financial officer of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter has been charged with theft and failure to pay taxes in connection with his alleged embezzlement of more than $1.5 million from the law firm. (Image from Shutterstock)

The former chief financial officer of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter has been charged with theft and failure to pay taxes in connection with his alleged embezzlement of more than $1.5 million from the law firm.

John Dunlea, 61, of Westfield, New Jersey, was charged in a criminal complaint Feb. 15, according to a press release by the New Jersey attorney general’s office and coverage by Law360.

Prosecutors allege that between 2017 and 2022, Dunlea paid himself unauthorized compensation of nearly $1,183,000 from the firm and received credit card payments of more than $355,000 for personal expenses he claimed as business-related. The credit card charges included the costs of airline flights, hotels and restaurants for himself and his family, prosecutors said.

Dunlea is also accused of failing to pay state income taxes from tax years 2018 to 2022 for income that he derived from the credit card payments.

The charges against Dunlea are two counts of theft by deception and five counts of failure to pay taxes.

Dunlea is also facing a lawsuit filed by McElroy Deutsch that accuses him of misappropriating more than $3.2 million from the firm over a period of more than 10 years. The suit also accuses Dunlea and his wife of abusing the firm credit card for payment of more than $1.6 million in personal expenses.

Dunlea resigned from the firm in April 2023. He is represented in the criminal case by Ricardo Solano Jr. of the Gibbons firm. Solano declined to comment when contacted by the ABA Journal.

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