A former Saugus selectman pleaded guilty to 18 counts of forgery, larceny and other charges related to an embezzlement scheme totaling more than $1 million last week, officials announced.
Mark Mitchell pleaded guilty to five counts of larceny by scheme, six counts of improper campaign expenditures, three counts of forgery, three counts of false entries in corporate books and one count of publishing false or exaggerated statements, officials said. He was sentenced to 18 months in the House of Correction which will be followed by three years of probation upon Mitchell’s release, according to officials.
The amount Mitchell will have to pay will be determined during a restitution hearing on Nov. 9, according to the Suffolk DA’s office. Mitchell embezzled the funds from the Boston Center for Adult Education, where he served as comptroller, officials said.
Mitchell’s embezzlement scheme ran from 2011 to 2018, during which time he wrote checks to himself totaling $896,537, officials said. Mitchell also wrote checks totaling $82,510 which were made out to an AAU baseball organization he owned and operated, according to officials.
Checks totaling $242,749 were written to a variety of third-party organizations for Mitchell’s personal benefit and the benefit of teams in the AAU league, officials said. Mitchell also stole money from his successful Saugus selectman campaigns, officials said.
“The scope of this scheme is made more contemptible when one considers the organization it victimized—an organization that has provided educational benefits to tens of thousands of adults since it was founded nearly a century ago,” Suffolk County DA Kevin Hayden said in a statement.
“This calculated theft struck at the heart of the BCAE’s ability to do what it does so well and has done for so long. Mr. Mitchell’s plea is only the beginning of the reparations that are justified in this shameful breach of fiduciary and civic trust.”
Susan Brown and Karen Kalfian, co-defendants of Mitchell’s, are scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 10. Brown allegedly authorized $565,000 in checks to Kalifan between 2009 and 2018, officials said.
Brown served as the executive director for the adult education center and Kalifan was a marketing employee for a portion of time during the scheme, officials said.
