Danbury man pleads guilty in $1.1M embezzlement scheme

Danbury resident Anthony Teixeria pleaded guilty to embezzling $1.1 million from his former employer.

Teixeira was employed by Joseph Merritt & Co. (JMC), a Hartford-based printing company, for more than 25 years, and most recently oversaw the company”™s Danbury branch. According to the charges brought against him, Teixeira defrauded JMC and its customers between January 2012 and February 2019 by presenting sales orders, or test sales orders, to customers under the pretense they were invoices. Customers who believed they were being billed for JMC work made payments to accounts that Teixeira controlled.

Teixeira is also accused of stealing JMC”™s printing-related inventory and selling it online while manipulating invoices to deceive the company”™s accounting system.

Teixeira was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Dec. 12, 2019, and was released on a $50,000 bond. However, he has been detained since June 1 after it was determined he violated the conditions of his release.

Teixeira pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 12.