Chief tech officer accused of stealing nearly $900K from law firm in phony invoice scheme
Federal prosecutors allege the chief technology officer of Budd Larner submitted nearly $900,000 in phony invoices to the regional law firm, then siphoned the money into personal accounts.
A federal complaint unsealed in early February accuses former CTO Rocco Romeo and a co-defendant of wire fraud, money laundering and related conspiracy counts, the New York Law Journal reports. The document doesn’t name Budd Larner as the law firm where Romeo worked, but Budd Larner has filed a separate civil suit against both defendants.
Budd Larner is a regional law firm of 60 lawyers that has offices in Short Hills and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and also New York City and Philadelphia.
According to the federal complaint, Budd Larner discovered something amiss when it conducted a cost review of each business unit in summer 2018. There was excessive spending in the information technology department.
A breakdown of costs revealed nearly $900,000 in charges to a firm called Seventech between August 2015 and December 2018. Several services listed on the invoices already were performed by a different vendor, the complaint says. Romeo had paid the invoices with a corporate credit card.
The address listed on the Seventech invoices is for a company that rents temporary office space to businesses; a company representative told federal authorities they had never heard of Seventech.
According to the complaint, the money paid to Seventech eventually was routed to bank accounts and a shell company controlled by Romeo and a co-defendant who owns a New York yarn shop. They used the money to pay personal expenses, the complaint alleges.
When Budd Larner interviewed Romeo as part of its cost review, Romeo said Seventech is operated by former Silicon Valley tech employees who have nondisclosure agreements with their former employers, the complaint says. Romeo allegedly said any communications must go through him.
Budd Larner’s suit is listed on Pacer, but the contents aren’t available. The electronic filing service does make accessible an order to show cause why the two defendants shouldn’t be restrained from accessing money belonging to the law firm.
The Budd Larner shareholder who filed the, suit Philip Chronakis, didn’t immediately respond to an email request for comment by the ABA Journal.
Romeo is represented by Jason Ser of the Federal Defenders of New York. He did not immediately respond to a voicemail and email seeking comment.
