A federal judge sentenced a Blackstone man who stole over $400,000 from his former employer through a payroll scheme to three years in prison on Monday, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Anthony Prizio, 49, pleaded guilty to six counts of wire fraud, one count of tax evasion and one count of unauthorized use of another’s identity in connection with the scheme back in February, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release.
Prizio was formerly employed as a manager at a national second-hand retail chain’s Worcester location, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. He carried out the scheme while serving in this role from January 2019 to July 2021.
As the store manager, Prizio had access to the timekeeping system that tracked employees’ working hours, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. He used this access to repeatedly enter fake work hours, including hours supposedly worked by employees who no longer worked at the store. He also issued payroll debit cards in other employees names and then kept the debit cards as part of the scheme.
Prizio tried to hide the fraud by misrepresenting the productivity of the store, making it appear that the store processed more items than it actually had, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. He also entered false paid sick time and bereavement leave for employees, which allowed him to pay himself for fake work hours without impacting the store’s productivity metrics.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Guzman sentenced Prizio to three years in prison and three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. She also ordered him to pay $431,399 in restitution to his former employer and $86,190 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as he did not pay taxes on his fraudulent income.
