Gloucester County Man Charged In $7.8M Embezzlement Scheme: Cops

PHILADELPHIA, PA. — A Gloucester County man is accused of conspiring with a Philadelphia-based produce wholesaler to embezzle $7.8 million from the wholesaler's business, federal authorities said.

Thomas Del Borrello, 42 of Sewell, New Jersey, was charged with eight counts of aggravated false filing of a currency transaction report and one count of aggravated failure to file a currency transaction report to help further a scheme planned out by 60-year-old Caesar DiCrecchio, of Voorhees, Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said.

DiCrecchio has been charged with two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, one count of aggravated identity theft, and four counts of tax evasion, resulting in more than $7.8 million in losses to the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market in South Philadelphia, according to authorities.

Authorities allege DiCrecchio, former President and CEO of the Produce Market, exercised control over every aspect of the market, including expenditure of funds, and was required to report on the market's finances to its Board of Directors.

DiCrecchio is accused of defrauding the market by:

• using company funds to pay $1.9 million in rent on his Stone Harbor, New Jersey shore house;
• converting into cash $1.1 million in checks drawn on the market's bank account and using the cash for his own benefit;
• causing $1.7 million in checks to be issued from the market operating account payable to his friends or relatives;
• causing the market to pay for the defendant's personal credit card expenditures;
• converting $320,000 in checks that were payable to the market and cashing them for his own benefit;
• skimming $2.6 million in cash from the pay gate at the market's parking lot, which he used to pay Market employees 'under the table' while keeping a substantial portion for his own use; and
• using Market funds to provide a $180,000 loan to a market vendor, which the vendor repaid directly to DiCrecchio.

He's alleged to have concealed these expenditures in the market's books and records by listing those payments to appear as legitimate business expenditures. Authorities said he notated the payments as maintenance, snow removal, insurance, legal fees, and other false expenditure entries.

He is also accused of aggravated identity theft.

Authorities said he cashed checks at a currency exchange using the name of an unwitting victim as the payee. They also allege that he conspired to launder money by agreeing with two unnamed people to conduct repeated money laundering transactions by converting market funds into money orders at a currency exchange so that he could pay the rent at his shore house.

In total, DiCrecchio laundered approximately $319,736 by purchasing money orders at the currency exchange using market funds, authorities said.

Del Borrello was a supervisor at United Check Cashing on South Broad Street in Philadelphia and was responsible for compliance with regulations governing cash transactions, including the preparation and filing of Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs).

DiCrecchio regularly caused groups of checks to be delivered to, and cashed at, United Check Cashing. These checks were each made out for less than $10,000, but when cashed as a group generated in excess of $10,000 in United States currency, authorities said.

For these cash transactions in excess of $10,000, regulations require the currency exchange to file a CTR, recording the identity of the person who presented the transaction.

Del Borrello allegedly caused the filing of false CTRs to DiCrecchio's identity, or did not file a CTR altogether. In some cases, DiCrecchio directed Del Borrello, or others at United Check Cashing, to convert the proceeds of the checks into separate money orders which were used to pay the monthly rent for DiCrecchio's Stone Harbor house.

Lastly, DiCrecchio is accused of willfully attempting to evade federal income tax over several years by failing to report more than $2.1 million in income from 2014 through 2017. Authorities said DiCrecchio failed to report as income the proceeds of his fraud on the market, as well as a car allowance, a pension allowance, and consulting income that he received from the Market.

DiCrecchio faces a maximum sentence of 102 years in prison, a three-year period of supervised release, and a fine of $2,500,000. Del Borrello faces a maximum sentence of 90 years in prison, a three-year period of supervised release, and a fine of $4,500,000.

Story by Max Bennett, Patch Staff