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Accountant Stole $1.6 Million For Gambling, Sheriff's Office Says

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TBO.com

Published: January 26, 2009

Updated: 01/26/2009 03:00 pm

David Sarnowski

CLEARWATER - An accountant was arrested Saturday on charges that he stole $1.6 million from a law firm for which he was doing some work, apparently to support a gambling habit, according to Pinellas County sheriff's records.

David J. Sarnowski, 50, of 300 Woodette Drive, Apt. 202, Dunedin, was charged with scheme to defraud and grand theft. He was being held at Pinellas County Jail today on $200,000 bail.

According to jail records, Sarnowski electronically diverted into his personal account $1.6 million from the account of the law firm Tanney, Eno, Tanney, Griffith and Ingram. The thefts occurred from June 2004 to Feb. 14, 2008, the jail records say.

Sarnowski was a partner with the accounting firm Yarborough, Evans and Sarnowski, which is located at 314 S. Missouri Ave. in Clearwater, the sheriff's office said. For more than ten years, he had been providing accounting services for the law firm, the sheriff's office said. His duties included payroll and payment of payroll taxes.

On Feb. 14, 2008, Sarnowski stopped going to work, and he had apparently taken his work desktop computer with him, the sheriff's office said. One of his accounting firm partners immediately contacted the law firm, which subsequently hired a private accounting firm to look into any potential irregularities, the sheriff's office said.

Many were found, and the law firm subsequently contacted the sheriff's office in July, 2008, the sheriff's office said. Sheriff's detectives found Sarnowski had diverted the money from the law firm to his own account, the sheriff's office said. The final transfer of funds occurred the same day he abruptly left, the sheriff's office said.

During the time he was diverting the money, he was receiving notices from the Internal Revenue Service that he was not paying the law firm's employees' payroll taxes, the sheriff's office said.

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