UPDATE (suspect released on bond) The former chief financial officer of a Westport hedge fund pleaded guilty today to a wire fraud charge stemming from his embezzlement of more than $1 million over almost six years from the firm where he was employed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Darrin Foster: worked at Westport hedge fund. N.Y. State Police photo
Darrin Foster, 46, formerly of the Bronx, N.Y., entered the plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis in New Haven and faces a maximum 20 years imprisonment when he is sentenced on Jan. 7, prosecutors said.
Court document and statements made in court said Foster worked as the chief financial officer of a hedge fund based in Westport which they did not identify. Foster said in an Internet posting that he was CFO for Turkel Investments, 60 Church Lane, from 1993 to 2010.
As CFO, Foster had access to his employer’s bank accounts, was authorized to make business-related charges on the corporate American Express card and was entrusted to pay the American Express bill, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
From approximately September 2004 to July 2010, he made thousands of unauthorized charges for personal expenses on his employer’s American Express account, prosecutors said.
He then arranged for telephone payments of his unauthorized charges to be made from the hedge fund’s bank accounts, they said.
Through this scheme, Foster made a total of $1,093,856.20 in unauthorized personal charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Foster was arrested by the New York State Police in Yonkers on May 27 after a trooper who stopped for a disabled car in Westchester County discovered the driver was wanted by the Secret Service for an alleged wire fraud.
Police said Trooper Peter Steixner also discovered that Foster allegedly had a suspended license for failure to pay child support.
The U.S. Attorney’s office, which initially said he has been detained since his arrest, later said he has been released on a $500,000 bond under electronic monitoring since June 7.
