Former McElroy Deutsch CFO apologizes for 'terrible decisions' before getting prison time for embezzlement
The former chief financial officer of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter was sentenced to five years in state prison Friday for embezzling more than $1.5 million from his law firm and evading state income taxes. (Image from Shutterstock)
The former chief financial officer of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter was sentenced to five years in state prison Friday for embezzling more than $1.5 million from his law firm and evading state income taxes.
Before his sentencing, John Dunlea, 61, of Westfield, New Jersey, apologized for his actions, Law360 reports.
“There are terrible decisions that I will regret for the rest of my life,” Dunlea said.
Besides serving prison time, Dunlea will have to pay restitution of more than $1.5 million to the firm and more than $20,000 to the state, according to a July 26 press release by the New Jersey attorney general’s office.
Dunlea pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by deception and five counts of failure to pay taxes in May. He was charged in February, about seven months after McElroy Deutsch filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Dunlea paid himself unauthorized bonuses and used his business credit card to treat himself and his wife to lavish vacations.
Dunlea’s attorney Ricardo Solano Jr. told NJ Advance Media that Dunlea’s conduct “was an absolute aberration” in Dunlea’s life, and he thinks that the court agreed.
“He is a good man who made a bad decision,” Solano said.
