Tech Company Executive Sentenced To Prison For Multimillion-Dollar Embezzlement Scheme And Tax Evasion

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced today that MARK ANGAROLA was sentenced to 38 months in prison for committing two extensive fraud crimes-an $8.3 million embezzlement scheme and a $668,000 tax evasion scheme. In the embezzlement scheme, ANGAROLA exploited his management position at a tech company to fraudulently enrich himself, his family, and his friends. Over the course of approximately nine years, ANGAROLA fraudulently billed personal expenses and hired his family and friends to no-show jobs. In the tax evasion scheme, ANGAROLA did not declare income received from the embezzlement scheme and, for two years, filed no taxes at all. ANGAROLA previously pled guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and tax evasion before U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho, who imposed today's sentence. Four other members of the embezzlement conspiracy have also pled guilty to date.

"Mark Angarola was the ringleader of a long-running fraud scheme that betrayed the trust of his employer, treated its client like a personal slush fund, and caused millions of dollars in losses to his victims," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "He further harmed the broader community by brazenly evading taxes for years. Angarola used his position to rip off his employers, clients, and hard-working, tax-paying Americans, and now he's going to federal prison."

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment, the Superseding Information to which ANGAROLA pled guilty, and statements made in public filings and in public court proceedings:

The Embezzlement Scheme

From approximately May 2010 through February 2019, ANGAROLA spearheaded a large fraud scheme to unlawfully enrich himself and his co-conspirators (the "Conspirators") by submitting and causing to be submitted fraudulent invoices and expenses to an information technology ("IT") services company (the "Contractor"), at which he was employed in a senior position. In total, the embezzlement scheme caused a loss of more than $8 million.

ANGAROLA was a New York-based Global Account General Manager at the Contractor. He was responsible for managing the Contractor's relationship with a particular client, which was a subsidiary of a global financial institution (the "Client"). The Contractor had a service contract with the Client, pursuant to which the Contractor provided IT support services to the Client at locations across the U.S. The Contractor subcontracted certain of this work to a technology solutions company (the "Subcontractor"). Pursuant to the agreement between the Contractor and the Subcontractor (the "Subcontract"), the Subcontractor provided certain IT support services directly to the Client in the place of the Contractor. Angarola was responsible for oversight of the Subcontractor's performance on the Subcontract, which included approving payment to the Subcontractor on invoices submitted for work purportedly performed and expenses purportedly incurred in the Subcontractor's performance on the Subcontract.

ANGAROLA abused his position to fraudulently enrich himself, his family, and his friends. For instance, he arranged for the Subcontractor to hire certain of his family members, friends, and subordinates, despite the fact that these individuals lacked apparent qualifications to perform deskside IT work. He arranged for the Subcontractor to hire, among others, his wife (a homemaker); his former college roommate (a police sergeant); and his close friends, including a construction manager and the construction manager's wife, a schoolteacher. Thereafter, various Conspirators falsely reported to the Subcontractor that they had performed work under the Subcontract and incurred business expenses. ANGAROLA himself personally benefitted from the scheme by circumventing the Contractor's expense policies by disguising his personal expenses as purported business expenses under the Subcontract. The Subcontractor submitted invoices to the Contractor for the hours purportedly worked and business expenses purportedly incurred by several of the Conspirators, and ANGAROLA, in turn, caused the Contractor to pay the Subcontractor on these fraudulent invoices. The purported business expenses incurred by several Conspirators, and ultimately paid for by the Contractor at the direction of ANGAROLA, included restaurant meals, hotel stays, transportation fees, a cruise, and gentlemen's clubs.

Tax Evasion

ANGAROLA also furthered his lavish lifestyle, including his near-daily use of a limousine service, through tax evasion, resulting in a tax loss to the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") of approximately $668,000. For four years, ANGAROLA failed to declare to the IRS the income he derived from his embezzlement scheme. In two of those years, he did not even file any tax returns.

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In addition to his prison term, ANGAROLA, 52, of Point Lookout, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release. ANGAROLA was also ordered to forfeit $2,679,445.26 and pay restitution in the amount of $9,023,444.96.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office; the IRS-Criminal Investigation, New York Field Office; and the U.S. Department of Labor - Office of Inspector General, Northeast Regional Office.

This matter is being handled by the Office's Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy V. Capozzi and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jorge Almonte are in charge of the prosecution.