Ontario Construction News staff writer
An Ontario-based accountant has been sentenced to more than two years in a U.S. federal prison after pleading guilty to a $2 million (US$1.8 million) embezzlement scheme involving a Chicago construction company.
Richard A. Mandarino, 46, of Scarborough, was convicted of wire fraud after entering false payment requests into the construction company’s accounting system between 2015 and 2017. Working on the firm’s Canadian projects while residing in Ontario, Mandarino caused cheques to be issued to vendor companies for goods and services that were never delivered.
He then diverted the funds for personal use—both his own and others’—and attempted to cover his tracks by creating fictitious credits and offsets in the company’s books.
Mandarino committed the fraud from 2015 to 2017 while he resided in Canada and worked on The Walsh Group’s Canadian business projects, the indictment from August 2022 states.
U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger sentenced Mandarino to two years and two months in prison and ordered him to pay back more than US$ 1.8 million. The sentence was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and the FBI’s Chicago Field Office.
“Defendant engaged in a deceptive and calculated scheme against his employer who trusted him with its finances,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum. “The scheme was complex and multilayered.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik K. Raman, along with former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Yusef Dale and Patrick J. King, Jr.
Mandarino pleaded guilty to the charge in 2024.
