A former city health department executive was busted yesterday on charges he embezzled $120,000, mainly by submitting bogus invoices sfrom a purported catering company.
Department bean counters issued 40 different checks worth $100,000 to the catering company called E.G. Marcus – even though it was never hired to cater for any department conferences, training events or workshops, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jim Comey said.
Imeh Jones, a 10-year department veteran, faces up to 20 years in prison for pulling off the catering scam and ripping off another $17,850 by submitting time sheets in the name of a former department consultant.
Jones, 45, who was charged with two counts of embezzlement, was the fiscal administrator of the department’s maternal, infant and reproductive health program until he resigned last year.
Court papers said Jones submitted the catering invoices to the department’s internal accounting unit with memoranda purportedly prepared by the manager of the maternal, infant and reproductive program.
When each check was issued to “E.G. Marcus” from July 1999 to June 2002, Jones would personally pick it up himself from the accounting unit, court papers said.
City Department of Investigation agent Byron Biggerstaff said a mailing address for “E.G. Marcus” supplied to the department led to a postal box in The Bronx which had been opened by Jones. Jones also faces a maximum $500,000 fine if convicted.
DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said, “Mr. Jones had a fiduciary responsibility to the people of New York – he took advantage of that role.”