A computer analyst who hatched a scheme to steal $16.8 million from his company and then flee to Europe under a new identity was sentenced yesterday to more than three years in federal prison.
Scott Michael Posnanski, 31, of Lake-in-the-Hills, Ill., was described at the sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore as an intelligent man from a good family who succumbed to greed. He was caught by U.S. Postal Service inspectors, Secret Service agents and the FBI as he attempted to wire the money overseas.
"He seemed to have everything going for him," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. White. "This is one of those crimes that was done for nothing other than pure greed."
At the time Posnanski attempted to steal the money, he was working at a Portland, Ore., branch of Insurance Auto Auctions, a thriving national automobile auction company in Schaumberg, Ill.
Posnanski and a co-worker, Andrew May, 34, of Portland stumbled upon a way to write themselves checks on IAA's corporate accounts, prosecutors said. After months of planning, they decided in September 1996 to write themselves 416 checks totaling $16,811,580.
Federal agents halted the scheme in its final stages as Posnanski and May were attempting to wire the money from a NationsBank branch in Baltimore to a bank account in the tiny eastern European nation of Estonia. From there, the men planned to move the money to Switzerland, prosecutors said.
Posnanski and May pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Prosecutors said that during the course of the scheme, the men had arranged fictitious identities for themselves so that they could vanish with the stolen fortune.
May was sentenced last year to 24 months. Posnanski received 41 months in prison.
White said the theft, if it hadn't been thwarted, would have dealt a serious financial blow to IAA.
"Its main cash account would have been cleaned out and Mr. Posnanski and his buddy would have been off to Europe," White said.
A NationsBank employee in Baltimore was key to foiling the scheme. The employee became suspicious of the large checks being deposited and called IAA officials, thereby alerting them to Posnanski and May's plan, prosecutors said.
Pub Date: 3/18/99