A former CFO is set to spend seven years in New Jersey prison for taking almost $2 million from the low-income residential property where he used to work.
Raymond Santiago, the prosecutor in Monmouth County, New Jersey, announced the sentencing of John O’Donnell on Tuesday.
An attorney for low-income high-rise Washington Manor first contacted Santiago’s office in June 2023. That came after an annual audit in April of the same year identified a “suspicious life insurance payment” of $14,000 for O’Donnell’s yearly premium, according to the news release and an affidavit of probable cause. Leaders at the property, which has 100 units for seniors and people with disabilities in Long Branch, then conducted an internal review of financial records.
Santiago’s team afterwards conducted its own investigation, which found that O’Donnell over the course of almost 15 years “issued approximately 400 unauthorized checks from company accounts to a construction firm he owned, totaling approximately $1.9 million,” according to a news release from the prosecutor’s office. Many of those checks had a forged signature of a Washington Manor employee, the release stated.
O’Donnell used those funds for “personal expenses such as mortgage payments,” Santiago’s office said. “None of these checks issued to (O’Donnell’s firm) KJ Construction were authorized by the Washington Manor,” the affidavit of probable cause said. “The stolen funds were used by O’Donnell for personal benefit, and not for the Washington Manor.”
The prosecutor also noted O’Donnell used a Washington Manor credit card to pay for more than $30,000 in personal expenses, including home renovations, pool services and HVAC repair.
Though he initially logged a plea of not guilty a year ago, O’Donnell later pleaded guilty to first-degree “financial facilitation of criminal activity,” according to Santiago’s office. O’Donnell is required to pay $1.7 million in restitution.
