Man is sentenced for embezzlement

The embezzler forged the doctors’ signatures, prosecutor says.

YOUNGSTOWN — A former office manager, who the prosecutor said embezzled some $300,000 over six years from a group of local urologists, has been sentenced to three years’ probation, with the first six months to be served in the Mahoning County Misdemeanor Jail.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, imposed the sentence Friday on Conrad Straub, 44, of West Wilson Street, Struthers, who had pleaded guilty Sept. 24 to a felony level theft charge.

Straub was taken immediately to the misdemeanor lockup, which is permitted to house nonviolent felons. The judge also sentenced him to 200 hours of community service and to complete a crime victim awareness program.

The indictment said Straub stole the money between March 1999 and March 2005 from NEO Urology Associates Inc. of Parmelee Avenue, which consists of Drs. Richard Memo and Robert and Vincent Ricchiuti.

Straub forged the doctors’ signatures on checks to himself and to merchants and opened unauthorized credit cards in the company’s name, said J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor.

During one semester, he charged his son’s college tuition to the physicians, the prosecutor said.

Straub also used corporate credit cards without authorization to pay for clothing, jewelry, personal laptop computers, expensive cameras, major repairs to his cars, vacations for himself and his family, and cellular phone bills for himself and his son, Thompson said.

“What mattered to the victims was that he be convicted of a felony and that he spend some time incarcerated. They’re perfectly satisfied with this sentence,” Thompson added.