Bookkeeper Sentenced for Defrauding Comp Lawyer of $1.5 Million

Monday, June 18, 2018 | 0

A well-known workers' compensation lawyer and longtime Miami Marlins baseball "super fan" has been defrauded of $1.5 million by his own bookkeeper, authorities said.

Bookkeeper Maria Alonso, 59, pleaded guilty this week to bank fraud. She was sentenced to four years in prison and must pay restitution, according to a Florida news report. She worked for Laurence Leavy, a Davie, Florida, claimants' attorney who for years could be seen in the stands behind home plate of Marlins games, wearing an orange team jersey.

For several years, Alonso created bogus vendor invoices and then generated checks from the law firm to pay the invoices, prosecutors said. She converted the checks into money orders and deposited them into her own account. The fraud was discovered during an audit in 2016.

“As we dug more and more and more, it was staggering to me,” Leavy told the Sun Sentinel newspaper. “I felt professionally raped.”

After an apparent squabble with the Marlins over ticket prices, Leavy has not been seen at ballgames this season, the newspaper reported.