Former director at Sturbridge nonprofit sentenced to two years for $366K embezzlement
Courtesy/MassDevelopment
Venture Community Services' Uxbridge facility.
A former director at Venture Community Services has been sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling approximately $366,477 from the Sturbridge-based human services nonprofit.
Kyriakos Kapiris of Northborough, Venture’s former information technology director, received his sentencing on Friday for wire fraud and money laundering charges in United States District Court in Worcester, according to a Friday press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts. Along with his prison sentence, Kapiris was ordered to pay $371,088.97 in restitution.
Kapiris had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in June 2022. He had served as director at Venture from April 2015 to May 2020.
Starting in 2016, Kapiris used two company credit cards to send funds to three vendor accounts he had created, fabricating sales invoices under the guise of purchasing equipment for the nonprofit. He used the names of two legitimate Massachusetts companies for two of the accounts on the web app Square and one under the name NetworkingPlus for an account he created on Amazon.
Kapiris transferred the proceeds from the three vendor accounts to a number of his personal Bank of America accounts, using the fraudulent funds for personal expenses including building a house. The house was forfeited by the government and sold, according to the release.
He was terminated from his position at Venture on May 29, 2020, following an internal investigation that revealed financial crimes, the nonprofit wrote in a statement to WBJ.
“The agency promptly reported these crimes to local law enforcement, and cooperated fully with the investigation. None of the people supported by Venture were affected by the crimes. Venture conducted a criminal background check on this former employee prior to hire and had rigorous internal controls in place that are reviewed annually by an independent auditor. Venture is grateful for the efforts of the Sturbridge Police Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts in bringing Kapiris to justice,” Venture said in the statement.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
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