SACRAMENTO, California (KOLO) – A former nonprofit CEO and South Lake Tahoe resident is facing new charges in a case charging him with stealing millions of dollars from his own charity.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury returned a 16-count superseding indictment against Richard Alan Abrusci charging him with 12 counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and three counts of monetary transactions with proceeds of specified unlawful activity.
The initial indictment alleges the 45-year-old Abrusci, from 2016 to 2021, embezzled around $1.4 million from a nonprofit that operates a chain of retail stores in California and Nevada. The DA’s office for the Eastern District of California alleges Abrusci did so while occupying a leadership position.
The new indictment adds charges for two additional alleged victim nonprofits.
The DA alleges that, during the summer of 2022, Abrusci became President of the Sacramento chapter of a national nonprofit organization that pairs children with adult mentors. They say he embezzled approximately $50,000 from this nonprofit between October and December 2022.
In the fall of 2022, Abrusci was the chairperson of the board of directors of a nonprofit that acted as an umbrella organization for nonprofits across California connecting community members with public services. According to the DA, from December 2022 to January 2023, Abrusci embezzled approximately $100,000 from this nonprofit.
The DA accuses Abrusci of embezzling funds from three nonprofits in total.
They say Abrusci caused the nonprofits to pay Resolution Arrangement Services for a variety of services that RAS purportedly performed, when in fact, they had not. Instead, it allegedly consisted of a fictitious business name Abrusci registered in 2008, and a bank account he opened in that year as well.
According to the indictment, the payments from the nonprofit organizations to RAS went to Abrusci’s bank account.
If convicted, Abrusci faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and fine of $250,000 for each of the 12 counts of wire fraud. He further faces a maximum 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each of the three counts of monetary transactions with proceeds of specified unlawful activity.
He also faces a consecutive two years in prison for the count of aggravated identity theft.
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