A disgraced former treasurer of the City of Vancouver has been sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding a Richmond company of more than $200,000.
Sandy Antonio Maddalena, 62, was hired by Kirk Integrated Marketing Services Ltd., a company that provides direct mail and printing services, after the city fired him in 2001 following allegations of fraud that eventually resulted in a separate criminal conviction.
Working in the company’s payroll department, he manipulated the payroll system, overpaying himself a substantial amount of money and misappropriating more than $200,000.
Court heard that he altered the payroll records and destroyed certain other records to conceal the theft.
The company sued him and received a default judgment of $200,000 as well as $50,000 in punitive damages.
In 2005, he was convicted of stealing more than $217,000 from the city, but was spared jail because the judge was told he was terminally ill and had only two or three years left to live.
On eight occasions in 2001 he had wired city funds to his personal accounts, buying himself a $36,000 BMW and investing other funds in securities.
He received an 18-month conditional sentence for the theft from city coffers and made full restitution for the money that was stolen.
Maddalena was on bail in the City of Vancouver matter for part of the time that he committed the fraud against Kirk Integrated Marketing Services.
His lawyer in the Kirk fraud case said that Maddalena had mental health issues — having been certified twice recently — and argued for another conditional sentence.
The Crown called for a jail term.
In imposing sentence, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Maisonville said that there was no known motivation the court was advised of.
“The amounts defrauded were such that they would have enhanced his lifestyle, spread out over a period of time, but there is nothing to point to now and he has no funds. He has been through bankruptcy. There is a question of whether he will ever be able to pay the monies back.”
The judge said that despite his inability to pay, she would be ordering that he make full restitution for the amount stolen from the company.
For reasons of denunciation and deterrence, and given his prior fraud against the city and breach of trust, it was important to sentence Maddalena to a jail term, the judge concluded.
