The former chief financial officer of two Boston-area companies pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston for embezzling millions of dollars from his former employers.
Edward J. Abell III, 45, of Gloucester, pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. He was indicted on the charges in October 2017.
Abell was vice president of finance and later CFO of Racepoint Global, a global integrated marketing agency based in Boston. In that capacity, Abell oversaw all aspects of the company’s finances and controlled all corporate bank accounts. Between 2006 and his departure in 2016, Abell embezzled over $3.8 million from his employer by writing company checks to Pinehurst Tax Assoc., a firm Abell owned. However, Pinehurst did not provide any services to Abell’s employer. Rather, Abell used Pinehurst as a shell company through which he channeled embezzled funds to personal bank accounts.
In order to avoid detection, Abell created fake profiles for Pinehurst within his employer’s internal vendor database and attributed all the fraudulent payments to Pinehurst as “professional services” in the financial accounting system. Abell also filed false personal tax returns with the IRS, which failed to report the millions he obtained through Pinehurst.
After he was terminated from the marketing and public relations firm, Abell was hired in late 2016 as CFO of the Boston-based consulting and investment banking firm Bulger Partners, where he continued his scheme and embezzled over $140,000.
Abell laundered the proceeds of his crimes by moving the funds through different personal accounts and by purchasing property and other luxury assets. Previously, the government obtained seizure warrants for several of Abell’s assets acquired with fraudulent proceeds. As part of the operation, federal agents seized a property in Fryeburg, Maine, a 2015 Porsche Macan S, a 2015 Ford F-350 Super Duty and an E*TRADE brokerage account, all owned by Abell or held in his name.
Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 4, 2019.
