Judge awards Lincolnshire company $9.79 million
A Cook County judge has awarded damages of $9.79 million to a Lincolnshire company whose former president embezzled company funds.
Former ICD Publications President Ian Gittlitz, 63, was fired in July 2007 after an audit revealed that from October 2000 through June 2006 he used a company credit card to cover business-related travel expenses and then submitted vouchers for personal reimbursement for the same expenses.
Prosecutors said Gittlitz’s “double dip” cost the company $2.5 million.
Gittlitz, of Stony Brook, N.Y., pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 2011. Company officials subsequently sued Gittlitz.
The court awarded the trade magazine publisher compensatory damages, punitive damages and interest on the embezzled funds. The decision concluded six years of litigation.
“We are extremely pleased that both the civil and criminal courts validated ICD’s claims,” said ICD co-founder and current President Dave Palcek in a prepared statement.
Cook County Judge Patrick Sherlock found that this was not a case of accounting errors or over-expensing a few charges, quoted Palcek in the company’s official statement.
Rather, Gittlitz deliberately breached his fiduciary duty by embezzling funds, he said.