Massachusetts Attny. General Thomas F. Reilly announced the indictment of the former financial director of the Mass. Teachers Assn. (MTA) for reportedly embezzling $802,000 from the state affiliate of the National Education Assn. (NEA) union.
Richard Anzivino began working in the MTA’s finance and accounting office and became its director in 1995. Starting in 1996, until his discovery by MTA officials in September 2002, he cashed or deposited 270 MTA checks from, and into, his personal accounts.
Anzivino reportedly hid his embezzlement by keeping the checks under $5,000, so that only his signature was needed. He also wrote the checks from “transfer” account, and at the end of the fiscal year, he would spread the stolen funds over various expense accounts. The 270 checks Anzivino allegedly used represent only a fraction of the 68,000 checks issued by the MTA from 1996-2002, when the embezzlement reportedly took place.
The outside firm auditing the MTA’s accounts missed the embezzlement every year until the MTA’s bank informed exec. director Edward P. Sullivan last September about suspicious transactions. Anzivino reportedly admitted to the theft, and was fired.
The Suffolk County grand jury indicted Anzivino on seven counts each of larceny and corporate fraud. [Mass. Attny. General 3/27/03, Boston Globe 3/27/03, 3/28/03]
