FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — The former Fayette County Association for the Blind executive director is facing nearly 500 charges after police say he stole funds from the nonprofit.
According to a criminal complaint, the Board of Directors at the nonprofit contacted Uniontown City police and requested a meeting with Chief Jason Cox on July 30, 2021.
During that meeting, Chief Cox was shown multiple cases of unapproved withdraws from the nonprofit from former executive director Eric Dolfi.
The board said they suspected Dolfi was stealing money by writing checks to himself and buying things with a credit card.
According to court documents, the board noticed something was wrong when they were told the nonprofit’s bills weren’t being paid and they were falling behind on payments for supplies and services.
Dolfi was appointed to executive director of the Fayette County Association for the Blind in July 2019 and was fired in July 2021 due to the board finding the embezzlement fraud he committed that police investigated, the complaint said.
The complaint also said that in his position, Dolfi had “complete control of all aspects” of the nonprofit’s finances.
Upon collecting bank statements, credit cards statements and payroll records, police discovered the embezzlement fraud.
Police said the scheme started around January 2020.
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Police also said Dolfi was using multiple accounts to take funds from the nonprofit and invest the money in personal expenses like travel, gifts, restaurant meals, liquors and other items.
According to the criminal complaint, Dolfi also inflated several of his personal paychecks.
Court documents said Dolfi used PayPal to withdraw the money from the nonprofit and put them into his own PayPal account. He allegedly did this 100 different times in the amount of $17,280.71.
The complaint also said that Dolfi used the Fayette County Association for the Blind VISA card to invest in his personal expenses on 381 different occasions worth $28,607.50.
Dolfi also inflated his personal paycheck 13 times, according to payroll records. The inflations totaled $2,061.
The Fayette County Association for the Blind lost $47,949.21 because of Dolfi’s financial fraud, court documents said.
Dolfi is facing 494 counts of third degree theft by unlawful taking felony charges.
He also faces two counts of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and two counts of misapplication of entrusted property of government or financial institutions.
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