Gavel (Credit: Brian Turner/Flickr)
A Brick Township man was sentenced to two years of probation this week after pleading guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his employer, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced Wednesday.
Scott Lifshitz, 60, of Brick, was sentenced May 12 before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O’Malley. During the sentencing, O’Malley noted that Lifshitz had already paid restitution in the amount of $833,000 to the victim.
Lifshitz pleaded guilty to second degree theft of movable property before Superior Court Judge Richard W. English on Feb. 10, 2023, following an investigation by detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. On that same date, he made the restitution payment to a company representative who was present. Lifshitz had apparently served as the chief financial officer of the company, whose name was not included in the statement made by prosecutors.
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The investigation revealed that Lifshitz oversaw the daily financial operations of the company and had access to all of the company’s bank accounts, according to prosecutors. In that capacity, he was able to write company checks payable to himself and to initiate wire transfers of company funds into his personal accounts.
“All of these transactions were unauthorized,” the statement said.
On the day Lifshitz was terminated from his role in the company in September of 2022, he unsuccessfully attempted to deposit two additional company checks into his personal bank accounts, but he had already been removed as an authorized signatory on the company accounts.
“The founders of the company reported the theft to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office shortly after Lifshitz was terminated,” the statement said.
Detectives confirmed his activity through interviews with the founders and by reviewing subpoenaed bank records and other documents establishing the theft which occurred over a period of roughly two years from September of 2020 through September of 2022.
