Long Island Accountant Gets Jail Time for Stealing $800K From Clients

A former partner at a Huntington accounting firm who was convicted of stealing over $800,000 from his clients, including a disabled man and an elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease, was sentenced Tuesday to serve four-and-one-third to 13 years in prison, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

Seaford resident Scott Meyer, 48, who worked at the Johnson and Meyer accounting firm, was additionally ordered to pay his victims restitution as part of his sentence.

The DA reported the following victims are due restitution from Meyer:

• The family of Meyer’s disabled client, Marc Rothschild of Los Angeles, is due $243,076.
• The family of a Greenport man with Alzheimer’s Disease is due $159,858.
• Huntington Rural Cemetery Association, a not-for-profit, is due $427,500.
• Nob Hill Condominium Complex in Ronkonkoma is due $31,836.

Meyer was arrested in mid-2013 for stealing his clients’ money while working as an accountant for the Huntington Rural Cemetery Association and the Nob Hill Condominium Complex in Ronkonkoma.

Meyer pleaded guilty earlier this year to grand larceny, possession of a forged instrument and falsifying business records.

The Greenport man, John C. Murphy Jr., was the owner of W.T. Hickey Corp. Electrical Contractors for over 60 years. As his accountant, Meyer stole nearly $160,000 from the businessman who died in April 2014.

Murphy’s sister, Frances Dunphy Livernois, addressed the court in a letter written on behalf of her late brother. She wrote that it was “heartbreaking” that her brother, whose cognitive, physical and functional abilities were steadily diminishing, was “taken advantage of at a time when he was most vulnerable.”

Livernois said Meyer’s “betrayal and deception” are “beyond comprehension”.

“By carefully choosing his victims to prey on their vulnerabilities, he used his skill as an accountant to steal over $800,000 and he kept the thefts undetected for over five years,” Spota said.

Meyer used this money to shop, travel and go on vacation. His credit bills had an average monthly balance of $50,000 and he spent approximately $140,000 on vacations to Aruba, Disney World and the Bahamas from 2008 to 2013, Spota said.

Meyer was previously convicted of federal charges for misappropriation of insurance funds and conspiracy in 2007. His CPA license was suspended after this conviction, but was eventually reinstated.

Image via SCPD