New Jersey man embezzled massive amount of money from global maritime company

An Elizabeth man has a hefty fine to pay and will spend more than two years in prison after being sentenced for a major embezzlement scheme he undertook while serving in a high ladder role for his now former employer.

It is a sentence of 27 months in prison and a fine imposed by a judge in Newark federal court of a combined $713,450 -- $356,725 for restitution, and  $356,725 for forfeiture, for 38-year-old David Buckingham of Elizabeth, according to U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger.

Before things fell under the sea, Buckingham had a job as an Associate Director of Global Maritime Services Group and head of the New York office, with the base of the company located in London, England, but then he allegedly devised a scheme to bring in money in an illegal fashion from his employer.

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According to Attorney Sellinger Buckingham siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company by accessing their bank accounts and writing checks to himself out to "cash" using that money and then cooked the books and records to try and cover his tracks making it look legitimate -- all between 2016 and 2018.

In addition to that, he opted to not "account for and pay over to the IRS payroll taxes for the employees of the company" which ended up totaling $277,051.

Buckingham was eventually charged and later pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of failure to collect, account for, and pay over federal payroll taxes.

Attorney Sellinger said that the government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Fayer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit and the defense counsel is Emily Sherman Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark.