PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Curtis Anderson, 60, of Claymont, DE, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison and three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay nearly $3 million in restitution by United States District Court Judge Timothy J. Savage for embezzling approximately $2.94 million from his former employer, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
In November 2021, the defendant pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in connection with his embezzlement from his employer. Anderson, who had served as the Director of Finance for the fraternity, was authorized to make deposits into the organization’s bank accounts but was not allowed to sign checks. Beginning as early as 2012, the defendant wrote numerous large checks to himself without permission using the signature stamps of authorized signatories, and withdrew cash from the fraternity’s bank accounts without permission. He also wrote checks payable to several other individuals who worked for the fraternity, without their knowledge, and then forged their endorsements, cashed the checks, and pocketed the money. In total, the defendant embezzled over $2.94 million from the fraternity over a six-and-a-half-year period.
“This defendant swindled almost three million dollars from his former employer and covered his tracks well enough that his illegal actions went undetected for many years,” said U.S. Attorney Williams. “Instead of doing the right thing and performing his job honestly for an historic organization that works to benefit and sustain its members, he chose the greedy path. Our Office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect innocent individuals and organizations from being victimized by financial fraud.”
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Secret Service and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mary E. Crawley.