The ex-CFO of a New Jersey-based fuel company was arrested last week on charges of embezzling more than $12 million from his former employer.
Robert McCloughy faces one count of wire fraud and two counts of “engaging in monetary transactions involving criminally derived property,” according to a news release issued May 1 by U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer.
In an April 29 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, prosecutors alleged that McCloughy misappropriated $12 million from an unnamed fuel company between March 2017 and March 2025. The complaint said that McCloughy had his former employer’s payroll provider give him unauthorized expense reimbursements. The document also alleged that he arranged unauthorized transfers from the fuel company’s bank accounts to his personal bank accounts.
In one instance, prosecutors said, McCloughy hid an unauthorized wire transfer to his personal account and falsely recorded it as “prepaid insurance.”
The complaint went on to say that McCloughy, who previously worked as a revenue agent for the IRS, used the funds for “a variety of personal expenses.” That included spending $21,200 at an “online sportsbook and casino,” the complaint said.
When the financial institution that held the company’s primary bank accounts restricted McCloughy’s access, he began destroying evidence, said the complaint, which included stills from surveillance footage at the fuel company’s New Jersey headquarters. Prosecutors said the footage showed McCloughy leaving his office with “handfuls of documents” and entering a room where, “among other things, a shredder was located.”
“Shortly thereafter, he left that room to obtain a trash bag from another room, returned to the room where the shredder was located, and then left with a full trash bag,” the complaint stated.
Frazer’s news release noted that wire fraud has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and can lead to fines.
When reached by email, Amie DiCola, the defense attorney for McCloughy, declined to comment on the case.
