CHICAGO — The former chief financial officer of a suburban IT consulting firm has been sentenced to three years in federal prison after embezzling over $1.3 million from his former company, of which he was a partner, CFO, and Managing Member.
ANTHONY FREMAREK, 49, of Plainfield fraudulently caused funds from two of the Schaumburg-based company’s bank accounts to be used to pay his personal credit cards, from 2013 to 2019. Fremarek attempted to conceal the embezzlement by falsifying entries in the company’s accounting system to disguise the payments as seemingly legitimate business expenses and submitting falsified financial information to the company’s banks. Fremarek pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in November 2022.
The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman on February 23, 2023.
The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Douglas Zloto, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Secret Service Chicago Field Office. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley A. Chung.
“[A]s soon as [defendant] had access to the company’s accounts and financial records, he began abusing his position out of pure greed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley A. Chung argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Defendant . . . unrepentantly betray[ed] the trust of his former partners and employees and stopped only when he was caught and terminated.”