A sunshine state swindler has been nabbed for allegedly pilfering a whopping $4 million from his employers' coffers, the feds say. Paul Schnitzer, 51, from Clermont, Florida, faces a one-count rap of wire fraud following accusations that he funneled funds from a portfolio company's pot into his own pocket.
According to the criminal complaint, our guy Schnitzer had the run of the register as the finance director, supposedly siphoning off company cash between January 2023 and May 2024. It's claimed he made off with the loot by dressing up over 90 transactions as "equity distributions," to his personal account. He didn't stop there, the feds allege, Schnitzer cooked the books, handing over hokum financial reports with bank balances bulkier than reality to the Massachusetts investment firm brass.
The U.S. Attorney's Office laid bare the alleged finance fiddle, with Schnitzer also accused of secretly swallowing a line of credit to top up the company's cash pool post-pilfering. If convicted, the Florida man could be looking at a prison stay of up to two decades, supervised shackles for three years, and a piggy-bank busting fine of up to $250,000.
Charges against Schnitzer were announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Boston Division said charges of wire fraud provides a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, when the law and the guidelines get to grip with the gravity of the graft. Schnitzer's currently scheduled to strut into the Middle District of Florida's court tomorrow, with a later date pending in Boston's federal court.
Schnitzer's in deep on just allegations for now, though. The law's clear – he's presumed innocent until the prosecution can pin the pilfering on him beyond a shadow of a doubt. It's Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Holcomb, spearheading the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit, who'll be pressing the government's case when the gavel goes down.
