Maryland employee indicted for defrauding firm

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Mar 31, 2008 by Christina Doran

A former employee of Wittstadt & Wittstadt P.A. has been indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court, Maryland for defrauding the firm, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein announced Friday.

According to the indictment and news release, George Michael Perez, 32, worked in the accounting department of Wittstadt and Wittstadt, a Baltimore firm specializing in real estate foreclosures.

From Dec. 2005 through April 2007, Perez allegedly made 114 wire transfers from the firm's escrow account at First Mariner Bank to his personal bank account, embezzling about $1,044,309.86, the indictment states. The escrow account held proceeds of foreclosure sales that were to be disbursed to creditors of the properties.

During monthly meetings with a principal at Wittstadt and Wittstadt, Perez allegedly altered spreadsheets to make it seem the accounts were balanced, the indictment states. Additionally, according to the indictment, Perez allegedly created a fictitious file, failed to make the disbursements and, in April 2007, set fire to the firm's offices. A firefighter was injured while attempting to put out the fire.

Perez, charged with 16 counts of wire fraud, arson and money laundering, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each of the 10 wire fraud counts, 10 years for each of the five money laundering counts, and a minimum mandatory sentence of seven years and maximum sentence of 40 years for arson.