Gary Foster, ex Citigroup vice president, sentenced to 8 years in jail over $22M embezzlement

A former accountant at Citigroup Inc was today sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing more than $22 million from his employer to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Gary Foster, an ex-vice president of the investment bank’s treasury finance department, had pleaded guilty to transferring the money from Citigroup bank accounts to his personal account at JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg reported.

“The defendant allegedly used his knowledge of bank operations to commit the ultimate inside job,” Prosecutor Loretta E. Lynch told a New York court last year.

The embezzlement occurred between 2003 and 2010.

An internal audit detected the wire transfers to Foster’s account in 2011 after he had voluntarily left the company.

According to Reuters, Foster, who worked for Citigroup for 10 years, used the money to live the kind of life that his regular salary of $100,000 a year would not allow.

He splashed out on luxury cars, including a Ferrari, a Maserati GranTurismo and a BMW.

Because he is legally blind, Foster also hired a chauffeur to drive him around.

And then there were properties in Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey, one of which, according to a New York Post report last year, featured ceilings painted in gold leaf.

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