Man pleads guilty to gambling money from $1.5M embezzlement scheme

LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)— A man pleaded guilty to embezzling over $1 million from a Luzerne County HVAC Company to fund his gambling accounts.

Wilkes-Barre resident Lawrence Malachefski faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release for allegedly embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in his role as a financial controller.

According to court documents, Malachefski oversaw a staff of other financial professionals as the financial controller and was trusted to independently initiate money transfers between the HVAC company’s bank accounts.

From March 21, 2023, to May 18, 2023, investigators say Malachefski embezzled $1,586,557.45 from the HVAC company’s accounts to his personal account.

Once in his personal account, officials say Malachefski gambled the money on various gambling sites such as FanDuel, Barstool Sports, DraftKings, and Unibet.

Investigators did not say what happened to the money Malachefski gambled on these sites; however, according to the Mandatory Restitution Act of 1996, the court must order full restitution to all victims for the losses the victims have suffered as a result of Malchefski’s alleged actions.

Malachefski pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

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