Former Philly market CEO Caesar DiCrecchio gets 10 years for stealing $7.8 million

Caesar DiCrecchio, 60, of Voorhees, N.J., was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $8 million in restitution by the U.S. District Court for defrauding the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market of more than $7.8 million.

In April 2021, the defendant pleaded guilty to several charges, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania:

• Two counts of wire fraud;
• One count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud;
• One count of money laundering conspiracy;
• One count of aggravated identity theft; and
• Four counts of tax evasion.

Prosecutors alleged these actions caused more than $7.8 million in losses to the wholesale produce business in South Philadelphia.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Organized Crime Task Force, the IRS – Criminal Investigation, and the Pennsylvania State Police, and was being prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorney Michael T. Donovan.

“For years, Caesar DiCrecchio used the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market like his own ATM, to the tune of almost $8 million,” Jacqueline Maguire, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia division, said in the release. “I’d call that wholesale fraud. Holding DiCrecchio responsible for his crimes is imperative, to send the message that stealing business funds for personal use isn’t such easy money after all.”

DiCrecchio, the former president and CEO of the produce market, was accused of defrauding the market several ways, according to the release:

• Using company funds to pay $1.9 million in rent on his Stone Harbor, N.J., shore house;
• Converting into cash $1.1 million in checks drawn on the market’s bank account and using the cash for his own benefit;
• Causing $1.7 million in checks to be issued from the market operating account payable to his friends or relatives;
• Causing the market to pay for the defendant’s personal credit card expenditures;
• Converting $320,000 in checks that were payable to the market and cashing them for his own benefit;
• Skimming $2.6 million in cash from the pay gate at the market’s parking lot, which he used to pay market employees “under the table: while keeping a substantial portion for his own use; and
• Using market funds to provide a $180,000 loan to a market vendor, which the vendor repaid directly to DiCrecchio.

The defendant concealed these expenditures in the market’s books and records by directing that these payments be reflected as legitimate business expenditures, according to the release. For example, these entries were labeled as maintenance, snow removal, insurance, legal fees and other false expenditure entries.

Also, prosecutors say DiCrecchio committed aggravated identity theft by cashing checks at a currency exchange using the name of an unwitting victim as the payee. And DiCrecchio conspired to engage in money laundering by agreeing with two others to repeatedly use money orders drawn on market accounts and cashed at a currency exchange so that he could pay the rent at his shore house. In total, DiCrecchio laundered about $319,736 by purchasing money orders at the currency exchange using market funds, according to the release.

The court alleges DiCrecchio also willfully evaded federal income tax over several years, by failing to report more than $2.1 million in income for tax years 2014 through 2017. DiCrecchio failed to report as income the proceeds of his fraud on the market, as well as a car allowance, a pension allowance and consulting income that he received from the market, according to the release.

“Instead of accurately filing and paying his fair share of taxes, Mr. DiCrecchio chose to hide his income and use his business as his personal ATM,” IRS Criminal Investigation special agent in charge Yury Kruty said in the release. “Justice has been served today, as Mr. DiCrecchio is sentenced to federal prison.”