Late in 2016, Clay Marzo’s bookkeeper got caught with her greedy little paws in is bank account. After pleading guilty to 13 counts of wire fraud a few months ago, she’s just been sentenced.
By the time it was figured out, Felicidad Rivera been at it for years, and barely even attempting to hide it. In February of 2017, The Maui News reported that from 2008 to 2015, the bookkeeper wrote almost 200 checks to herself totaling about $334, 500. She also paid off nearly $100,000 in personal credit card debt. The theft was pretty blatant–her credit card bills were set up to come directly out of the Marzos’ bank accounts. She got caught when Marzo’s mother, Jill Marzo Clark, noticed a whole bunch of designer handbags that she hadn’t purchased on her credit card bill. They were shipped to Rivera’s house.
“It’s bittersweet; it’s awful that she did what she did because she was like a family member,” said Clark to reporters a few days after Rivera was arrested. “She was close with us and worked with me for a long time.”
Rivera, a legal immigrant from the Philippines, will spend 35 months in federal prison. When she’s released, she’s to pay Marzo and his mother $373,182. Her lawyer says its likely that she will be deported since U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement don’t look nicely on aggravated theft.
According to GrindTV, Marzo lost his house, his life savings, and is now trying to dig himself out of a $30,000 debt. He’s working on a new film called This is Clay.
