Former Hotel Senior Analyst Admits Role in Embezzlement Scheme

NEWARK, N.J. – A former hotel employee of a nationwide hotel chain today admitted his role in a scheme to embezzle over $300,000 from the company, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Marco Alvarez, 46, of Bloomfield, New Jersey, pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an information charging him with one count of wire fraud. 

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

As senior analyst for strategic sourcing for a national hotel chain, Alvarez was responsible for administering the company’s corporate credit card program. He was authorized to approve applications for credit cards and to access account information for such credit cards. From April 2014 through January 2020, Alvarez embezzled funds from the hotel through the unauthorized use of the hotel’s corporate credit cards to purchase goods and services. Alvarez admitted that he knowingly opened and used corporate credit cards to make $317,582 in unauthorized personal purchases and attempted to conceal them by transferring credits owed to the hotel to these credit cards to offset the unauthorized charges made.

The charge of wire fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of the greater of $250,000, or twice the gross profits or loss, whichever is greatest. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 21, 2022.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Postal Inspector in Charge Damon Wood, Philadelphia Division; and special agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Thomas Mahoney, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Fatime Meka Cano of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Government Fraud Unit in Newark.