A Hollywood accountant who stole more than $7 million from singer Alanis Morissette and other clients wept Wednesday when he was sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to pay $8.6 million in restitution, CNN reported.
Jonathan Todd Schwartz, 48, admitted to stealing the money as part of a scheme to pay for his lavish lifestyle, officials said.
“I alone am responsible for the devastation,” Schwartz said at the hearing. “I will spend the rest of my life asking for forgiveness.”
In addition to Morissette, Schwartz also embezzled more than $1 million from an unnamed entertainer and nearly $800,000 from another former client, CNN reported.
Appearing at Schwartz's sentencing on Wedneday, Morissette told U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee that the former accountant stole from her in a “long, drawn-out, calculated and sinister manner.”
When first confronted about the irregularities in Morissette's accounts, Schwartz lied and said the funds were an investment in an illegal marijuana-growing operation.
Schwartz, who was working at the time as a certified public accountant at Los Angeles's GSO Business Management LLC, withdrew funds from Morissette's accounts, then reported them as “sundry/personal expenses” to his employer, CNN reported. He would pick up the money himself or have it delivered to his office, with the resulting bank statements also going to GSO, rather than to his clients, CNN reported. GSO subsequently sent financial statements to clients based on the falsified information provided by Schwartz.
After Schwartz's crime came to light, GSO fully cooperated with the FBI and IRS investigation into his actions, officials said.
“Mr. Schwartz used his clients' funds as a personal ATM machine and, in doing so, financially victimized his clients and colleagues,” said Deirdre Fike, the assistant director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.
