An Illinois man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly receiving $469,000 from a New Jersey company he never worked for.
According to press reports, Anthony Armatys of Palatine, Illinois was charged with theft for allegedly receiving electronic payroll bank deposits from Avaya Inc.
The telecommunications provider belatedly discovered that checks had been mistakenly deposited into Armatys’s account for nearly five years, the Associated Press reports.
According to the report, Armatys accepted a position with Avaya a number of years ago, but changed his mind before he actually began working there. Nonetheless, checks were deposited into his account from the fall of 2002 to March of 2007, when the company discovered the error.
According to the report, Armatys received more than $469,000 in pay. He also reportedly withdrew about $1,900 from a company retirement account administered by Fidelity Investments.
It took 11 months to arrest Armatys after the error was discovered, because it took that long to do a thorough investigation, according to the report.
Armatys was charged with one count of theft by deception.
CFO.com was unable to reach Armatys — whose telephone number is not listed at his request — for a comment.