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New York Volunteers Accused of Embezzling Thousands From Department
GEORGE RICHERT
WIVB
Reprinted with Permission
CATTARAUGUS, N.Y. (WIVB) - Two volunteer firefighters are charged in the disappearance of tens of thousands of dollars from the Cattaraugus Fire Department.
They ran the Bell Jar Ticket Game for the Department and now somewhere between $30,000 and $80,000 is missing.
39-year-old Edward Holtz of the village of Cattaraugus pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny for the taking at least $30,000 while running the Bell Jar Ticket Game to raise money for the Cattaraugus Volunteer Fire Department. The Treasurer of that Department, 52-year-old John Finnegan, was arrested last week and charged with offering a false instrument and filing false business records in the same case.
Only Holtz has pleaded guilty so far and he blames it on a gambling problem.
Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Rieman said, "I don't know if that's true or not, that's just what he's saying, but it does seem to be getting more common and I'm not sure whether that's the economy or gambling or both, but unfortunately these volunteer organizations, it's hard because you don't know if somebody has a history of that and it's hard to find people that are willing to do it."
John Finnegan is due back in court Tuesday. Edward Holtz will be sentenced June 21st and could get anything from probation to one to three years in jail.
Copyright WIVB.com
WIVB
Reprinted with Permission
CATTARAUGUS, N.Y. (WIVB) - Two volunteer firefighters are charged in the disappearance of tens of thousands of dollars from the Cattaraugus Fire Department.
39-year-old Edward Holtz of the village of Cattaraugus pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny for the taking at least $30,000 while running the Bell Jar Ticket Game to raise money for the Cattaraugus Volunteer Fire Department. The Treasurer of that Department, 52-year-old John Finnegan, was arrested last week and charged with offering a false instrument and filing false business records in the same case.
Only Holtz has pleaded guilty so far and he blames it on a gambling problem.
Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Rieman said, "I don't know if that's true or not, that's just what he's saying, but it does seem to be getting more common and I'm not sure whether that's the economy or gambling or both, but unfortunately these volunteer organizations, it's hard because you don't know if somebody has a history of that and it's hard to find people that are willing to do it."
John Finnegan is due back in court Tuesday. Edward Holtz will be sentenced June 21st and could get anything from probation to one to three years in jail.
Copyright WIVB.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian Mackie on
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This guy needs to go jail. AND A SHAVE! Second thought. Forget the shave. He won't be fighting anything but his cell mates for a while, and when he gets out he won't be getting back into the fire service anytime soon. The rest of them... well you know.. innocent until proven otherwise.
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Permalink Reply by Jon Droska on
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Right, i love his under the jaw beard.. haha. If you can't grow a proper beard, don't try. And as a firefighter he shouldn't have that thing anyway.
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LOL brotherhood? WHAT brotherhood. Ask the guy that ripped off his brothers! Ask HIM where the brotherhood is. Isn't that weird. WE (the brotherhood) will be prepared to back the guy to the wall and then some, and save his ass no matter what, and in return, he shows his gratification to the "brotherhood" by ripping them off! Maybe it's just me, but here in Canada, we don't take too kindly to that sort of crap! Actually, I had to fire a guy's ass for exactly that... stealing from the "brotherhood". It's not fun, but for stealing from the guys n gals (aka "the brotherhood"), it was not a real hard decision to make.
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Permalink Reply by Station10Capt106 on
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unfortunately corruption and temptation reside in any occupation and group. There has been stealing in fire dept's, police dept's, churches, Lion's Clubs, school PTO's . . . you name it and there has been someone at some time or another that has stolen something.
That is not to condone it, in fact it really pizzes me off to hear about someone stealing - especially someone involved in the fire service. Hopefully the community knows that it is just a few bad apples and not indicative of the whole membership. But even so, I'm sure the department will have a lot of damage control to do and will have to rebuild the trust which will take time.
We need to use these news reports as a reminder to constantly look within our own organization and monitor what is going on. Put in control systems to help prevent the temptation of theft. There should be a checks & balance system where no one person has absolute control of the money. Sometimes in desperate times temptation can make a good person make a bad decision.
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Canadian or not i agree with you...hahaha..... just kidding brother. Anyway, he doesn't get brotherhood treatment anymore. That department is out a lot of money because of him.
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Permalink Reply by Russ on
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He pulled a fredo corelone and should go like luca brazi...i gotta quit watching movies while commenting on FN. stealing from your department sucks
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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WOOF!
What a major mutt this guy is.
Like a gambling problem justifies his stealing?
Add stupid to his profile.
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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
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Yes, what a whack job. "Oh I have a gambling habit" justifies stealing? Yup, its a few losers like this that mucks it up for all of us. Hopefully he will get the punishment we all think he deserves.
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Permalink Reply by Firefighter Walther on
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wow, this is so messed up, i would have never thought of this!! the only thing i have ever stolen was a candy bar when i was like 4, thats it! like WTF dude?
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Permalink Reply by Marvin Hawk on
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Actually we'll let him keep the poor excuse for a beard as long as he keeps it shorter than an inch long.
Seeing as his crime is what the great state of New York will term non violent, there is a good chance that if he does get three years he will be able to go through the Shock Incarceration Program.
In this lads case he would be about 60 miles away from home at Lakeview Correctional Facility. If not he'll probably get to do his time in a Medium Security facility which if the state leaves him close to home will put him about 35 miles from home at Wende. But remember crime doesn't pay.
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Permalink Reply by Bill Ellis on
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Hey, I'm the Asst. Chief from Cattaraugus. I first would thank you guys for the show of brotherhood. This bearded thief was acting like he was everyones best of friends. He was the stewart of our club,what he was doing was taking alittle from a bunch of the pull tab games. The only gambling problem was he loved to play the tickets with our money,and he was winning with our money. About 4 months ago we threw fat ass out of our Department and banned him from all Fire Dept. property. Our Treasurer was doing everything he could to make this go away. To the point these two took it upon themselves to set up a payment plan without the knowledge of the rest of the Dept. Mr. Finnegan has also been removed from our rolls along with his wife. My Dept. has been shacken to its core.Damage controll has already started and hopefully we can get through this. by the way,along with Eds great looks and great beard, he also weighs in at about 350. What a looker.
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Chief:
I hope that you have implemented more safeguards to protect the department's money.
Make sure that restitution is a part of the sentence and don't let the prosecutor plea it down to probation and time served.
The mutt has violated a sacred public trust, the prosecutor and jurors needs to understand that and he needs REAL jail time to discourage others.
If you haven't noticed, there has been a rash of fire departments thefts lately.
Good luck.
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