A man in love squandered $ 5,8 million from the company's credit card to a former escort employee
'11.08.2017'
Source: Chicago tribune
Scott Kennedy, the former financial manager of a large company, claims that he only wanted to be loved. But the FBI believes Kennedy has given unauthorized persons access to his company's credit card. He writes about it Chicago tribune.
According to the FBI, in less than a year and a half, the company has suffered losses of almost $ 5,8 million.
Absolutely unimaginable items about wasted funds are included in the lawsuit - for example, about $ 24 000 for carriers to transport the ornamental plants of a woman from Illinois to her new 600 square house in San Diego, where she planned to open a spa with payment in cash.
“I'm the only person who should be held responsible for this nonsense,” Kennedy, 43, said in a telephone interview this week.
The charges are described in detail in the warrant for the removal of $ 36 229 from the current account of the spa business, which was allegedly launched by Scott's mistress. The document was recently published in federal court in Chicago.
None of the characters was named in court, but Kennedy himself, his criminal prosecution lawyer and his former company identified him as a business executive, called by the authorities "person A".
“Person B” is identified in court as president K & K Enterprises, director of spa business, which she tried to open in San Diego. The filing of the application also provides information that she filed for bankruptcy at Rockford in the 2009 year. Public records on both sides confirm her identity: this is 31-year-old Kristal Landberg. She did not respond to any of the requests for comment.
A court document filed in mid-May states that both Kennedy and Landberg are under investigation for fraud and money laundering. However, at the same time, records show that criminal charges have not yet been filed.
In the lawsuit, the FBI stated that Kennedy was cooperating in the investigation, and his lawyer Sami Azhari confirmed that they were working on an amicable settlement. The FBI statement says that Kennedy has no criminal record.
Former Kennedy Company located in France Nemerain which he held a senior financial position at the plant in Buffalo Grove, said she fired Kennedy in March of this year after an internal investigation confirmed suspicions of inappropriate financial activity. The company, which manufactures drug delivery devices, said it promptly notifies law enforcement agencies and cooperates fully with the FBI in the investigation.
An FBI representative in Chicago declined to comment on the case, but in court FBI representatives said that Kennedy told agents that he first met Landberg in the mid-to-late 2012 of the year through an online advertising website. Backpage.comwhich advertises sex services.
At the time, Person B was working as a professional escort employee, and Person A requested her services about 8-10 times between 2012 and May 2015, the FBI said.
Reportedly, these individuals also spoke from time to time on personal topics.
By May 2015, Landberg sent Kennedy a letter asking for financial assistance, the FBI said. According to authorities, before November of the same year, she, her two small children and their pets moved to Kennedy in his suburban home.
For the first time, access to Kennedy's credit card was granted by Landberg in November, after she asked for help in buying Christmas presents for her daughters.
According to authorities, over the next 16 months, the two got $ 5,79 million from the company's cash.
Most of the expenses arose after Landberg moved with her children, pets, and plants to San Diego a year ago. The company involuntarily paid the bill for the rental of the mansion in the amount of 12 000 dollars per month.
According to the analysis received from Nemera The FBI, Landberg spent about $ 585 000 on a medical spa called the Royalties.
Among the additional payments, which Landberg allegedly received mainly, were plastic surgery during his stay in Miami; two pairs of hours Rolex worth $ 60 000; personal driver for daughters at $ 8000 per month; a maid with a salary of $ 2500 per month; two purebred dogs, which cost $ 6 000; trips to Bali, to France, to Costa Rica, to Hawaii, to Santorini, the islands of Bora Bora and Fiji in the South Pacific.
In an interview, Kennedy said that Landberg had misled him because he just wanted to have a family.
“I wanted to be loved and cared for. My heart turned my head over and said, “Take the chance,” he said Tribune... "Well, everything exploded."
While Kennedy largely blamed Landberg for expenses, a FBI statement said he acknowledged using the company's credit card to pay for travel and rent the hotel where he lived when Nemera uncovered fraud. He also admitted to the FBI that he bought gift cards at the company's expense to pay for daily expenses after Landberg allegedly exhausted her personal credit cards.
Kennedy also assured the FBI and Tribune, that Landberg had made him believe that she would eventually pay the costs. According to the FBI, Landberg told Kennedy that she was adopted as a child in a rich family and had a trust fund in her name worth $ 4 million, which she could get in 30 years.
But the FBI document notes Landberg’s bankruptcy in 2009, when she reported only $ 100 on her current account and income of about $ 200 per month. In addition, the bankruptcy statement did not mention any trust funds, the FBI pointed out.
“My mistake is that I trusted her,” Kennedy said in an interview. "At this point, I have very little faith that she ever told me the truth."
In his statement Nemera claims that earlier this year they learned about Kennedy's possible inadequate financial activities and hired an independent auditing firm and a lawyer. According to the company, Kennedy was fired in March.
Subsequently, the FBI entered Kennedy, and he agreed to cooperate with the authorities, including making secret recordings of personal and telephone conversations.
Analysis Nemera in terms of expenses, the pair revealed more than 8 800 improper withdrawals from the company's credit card from November 2015 to mid-March 2017. This included the $ 970 734 dollar; $ 606 887 for clothes and accessories; $ 552 662 on home decor; $ 441 312 for accommodation; $ 315 117 for entertainment; $ 279 231 for jewelry, and $ 253 019 for health and beauty.
In March, while Kennedy was vacationing in Fiji on a trip that he was expecting to take on Landberg, she told him that she was seriously worried about just signing a contract for $ 24 000 a month for five years. She said that creditors need money, and the payment date is about to come.
“I'll have to start selling myself again,” Landberg wrote in a series of fragmented posts. "I was so close to financial freedom (expletive)."
Kennedy tried to reassure her, saying that if they received $ 5 million from her father, everything would be fine.
“DO NOT sell yourself,” wrote Kennedy. "We'll find a way."
By May, shortly after prosecutors in Chicago filed a warrant to verify Landberg’s business accounts, FBI agents searched her mansion in San Diego. In the news reports it was said that dozens of agents, fully equipped with weapons, had arrested, among other things, the Jaguar and the white piano.
At the time, the mansion was a real estate selling site advertised online, with the headline "Unexpected Step for the Chicago Heiress with TOTAL!". The post promised that property worth more than a quarter of a million dollars would be put up for sale.
Meanwhile, the woman is upset that she is considered to have planned this operation, her lawyer said on Friday.
Kennedy said Tribunethat he was stupid and did not have to trust Landberg, but her attorney from California, Mark Carlos, who was fired on Friday, told the newspaper that it was Kennedy who was responsible for fraud.
“He knew who she was. He knew what her past was like. So he wanted to be rewarded for his gifts, - said Carlos. - He is the one who has ... the means, method, opportunity and motive to commit a crime. She didn't do it. "
Landberg is not a financial genius, she did not go to college and does not have the skills to commit such a crime, Carlos said.
“He needed to do something to reduce his responsibility and say that he is a victim was his only option,” said Carlos. "This is the only way he can reduce his criminal responsibility, but this is ridiculous."
Lawyer Kennedy Azhari responded on Friday to Landberg's attempts to shift all responsibility to Kennedy.
“It would be prudent for Krystal and her lawyer to refrain from comments and allegations that may ultimately be contradictory, especially in light of the investigation and any potential criminal charges she faces,” he said.
In his interview Tribune Kennedy said that Landberg had deceived him because he wanted to have a family. Carlos, her lawyer, mocked the statement.
“Family with someone who paid before they became a couple is ridiculous,” Carlos said. "His claims that she cheated on him is just a way to reduce his responsibility, to make herself look better."
Kennedy also supported the FBI in that Lundberg made him believe that she would eventually refund his money. He said that Lundberg told him that she was adopted by a rich family as a child and had a trust fund in her name worth $ 4 million, which she could get in 30 years, according to a FBI statement.
When asked about Landberg’s statement about the alleged trust fund in her name and her promise to return the money, attorney Landberg refused to answer.
