Doctor Admits Stealing more than $500,000 from Former Employer

CAMDEN, N.J. – A doctor today admitted defrauding his prior employer’s medical practice by stealing and forging the medical practice’s checks to pay personal expenses, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

Walter Sytnik, 35, of Voorhees, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez in Camden federal court to an information charging him with one count of mail fraud.

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

Before attending medical school, Sytnik worked for a medical practice in southern New Jersey as a bookkeeper. While employed by the practice, Sytnik stole some of its checks and, from May 2013 through April 2018, used them to steal more than $500,000 from the practice. He opened and maintained credit card accounts at the same banks as used by the doctor at the medical practice, and forged the doctor’s signature on the stolen checks, which he sent through the U.S. Mail to pay his own credit card bills. When Sytnik ran out of checks, he reordered new ones so that he could continue the fraud.

The mail fraud charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the offense, whichever is greatest. In his plea agreement, Sytnik agreed to make restitution for the full amount of the loss, which, after the recoupment of some of the stolen monies, is estimated at $416,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 10, 2022.

Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited agents of the FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Bradley S. Benavides in Philadelphia, with assistance from the Voorhees Township Police Department, under the direction of Chief Louis Bordi, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Vondra Carrig of the U.S Attorney’s Office in Camden.