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August 7, 2007

Ex-employee admits stealing $981,794 from RISD

PROVIDENCE -- A former fire safety chief at the Rhode Island School of Design pleaded guilty today to stealing nearly $1 million from the East Side college through a fraudulent billing scheme.

Patrick ``Berney’’ Clyne, 65, of Providence, appeared before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi and admitted that he engaged in mail fraud and filed a false tax return. Clyne, who had been living in Ireland with his wife, Ibtisama Bradley, 58, surrendered to the authorities last spring at Logan International Airport in Boston.

As part of the plea agreement, Clyne also agreed to forfeit the couple’s home and property that they bought through their ill-gotten gains in Ballinamore, Ireland. Thomas Connell, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, said that the government will move to have the criminal charges dropped against his wife.

Andrew J. Reich, an assistant U.S. attorney, said that Clyne falsely billed RISD $981,794 between June 1997 and November 2005. He also failed to declare $162,743 of that money in his 2003 federal income tax return.

Clyne, who is out on bail with an electronic monitoring device attached to his ankle, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 2. He faces a maximum of 23 years in prison and fines of $500,000.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

Posted by Jack Perry  at 11:08 AM | Permalink

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