Former New York Exec Charged With $2.5 Million Embezzlement

Ian Leigh Gittlitz, 58, of Stony Brook, New York, and Pompano Beach, Florida, and the former president and chief financial officer of ICD Publications of Lincolnshire, Illinois, was arrested Sunday and charged with embezzling some $2.5 million from the company. Gittlitz allegedly used three different schemes to embezzle from ICD, according to investigators. First, he double submitted his expense reports. Second, he forged the expense reports of others as his own. A third, he wrote unauthorized checks from the company to himself. The schemes reportedly went on from 2000 until 2007, when he was fired by the company after improprieties came to the attention of board, according to reports.

In an interesting bit of irony, Gittlitz was quoted in a 2004 article about consumer response to Martha Stewart's criminal troubles as saying, "Our research shows that in many cases consumers are able to separate their personal feelings for Martha from their interest in her product designs. Consumers have consistently shown that they are most interested in products that offer the appropriate price value relationship, whatever the brand."

Read the story here and here.