Three people were criminally charged for scheming to defraud American International Group with phony invoices from recruiting firms.
One of the three, John Falcetta, formerly was vice president of human resources for AIG’s life insurance division from September 2005 to August 2007. The others are Gary Santone, principal of G. Santone Associates, and Thomas Pombonyo, principal of Enterprise Business Group and Global Search Affiliates.
A fourth suspect in the case, Justin Broadbent, has not yet been apprehended, announced Michael Garcia, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Falcetta was authorized by AIG to hire headhunters and to approve payments to them. He allegedly arranged for Broadbent, Santone, and Pombonyo to submit invoices charging AIG for search services that were never were performed. Falcetta then received kickbacks from “these sham companies,” according to Garcia.
Broadbent submitted invoices to AIG requesting payment of about $479,000, according to the complaint, and Falcetta approved four them totaling $120,000. The rest went upaid because AIG received them immediately following Falcetta’s termination on August 20, Garcia asserted. In return, Broadbent allegedly issued a check for $79,200 to Human Capital Management Partners, a sole proprietorship used by Falcetta.
Santone’s invoices totaled about $320,000. All of them were approved and paid, and Santone sent checks for $207,276 to Human Capital Management. All of Pombonyo’s invoices, totaling about $674,886, also were approved and paid, for which Falcetta received $176,000, according to the complaint in the case.