Pleasantville bookkeeper sentenced and ordered to repay clients $287K

Pleasantville bookkeeper Stefan Malgarinos has been ordered to repay $287,497 to five companies whose payroll deductions he kept for himself.

Malgarinos, 49, was sentenced to state prison Sept. 18 for two to six years for grand larceny and one to three years for a scheme to defraud, to be served at the same time. Westchester County Court Judge Michael Martinelli also ordered him to make restitution to his clients.

Concerns about his bookkeeping surfaced in 2017 when Barrier Contracting LLC of Tarrytown sued him for $86,700 in Westchester Supreme Court. Malgarinos”™ company, Manos Business Management, was then located in Hawthorne.

Shortly after Manos Business Management advised Barrier Contracting in January 2016 that it was going out of business, the complaint states, Barrier discovered that nearly $87,000 had not been turned over to the state Department of Labor, state Department of Taxation and Finance and the Internal Revenue Service.

Westchester District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino Jr. filed six felony charges against Malgarinos two years ago.

The D.A.”™s economic crime bureau found that businesses had deposited funds with Manos Business Management to pay employee withholding taxes and insurance premiums. Malgarinos collected the full amounts the businesses were required to pay but kept some of the funds for his personal use.

CT/NY Lighting Co. of Stamford, for instance, gave him $35,000 to cover its third-quarter 2012 federal tax obligation. Malgarinos filed the IRS tax return, according to Scarpino, but did not make the payment.

In 2014, he received $150,000 from Mid-Bronx Haulage for quarterly taxes in 2013 and 2014. He gave the company”™s office manager copies of the tax return and the front of a check written to the IRS, as proof of payment. But the check was never sent and it was later deposited in his personal account.

In 2015, Gordo”™s restaurant in Hawthorne gave him $22,000 for federal taxes. Malgarinos sent the IRS $2,820, according to the prosecutor, and used the rest on his mortgage and other personal expenses.

Also in 2015, Blueline Tactical Supply and Shooting Sports of Elmsford, gave him $107,000 for tax obligations. He remitted $17,690 to the government and kept the remaining $89,533 for himself.

Malgarinos pleaded guilty in February to grand larceny and a scheme to defraud in a plea agreement with the district attorney.

He also agreed to repay five clients: Mid-Bronx Haulage, $108,880; Blueline Tactical, $87,733; Barrier Contracting, $71,680; South of the Border, Lake Peekskill, $17,204; and The Sinon Group LLC, Armonk, $2,000.