Doctor Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Stealing More Than $500,000 from Former Employer

CAMDEN, N.J. – A doctor was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for defrauding his prior employer’s medical practice by stealing and forging the medical practice’s checks to pay personal expenses, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Walter Sytnik, 35, of Voorhees, New Jersey, previously 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. Judge Rodriguez imposed the sentence by videoconference today.

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.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez sentenced Sytnik to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $415,995.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited agents of the FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire in Philadelphia, with assistance from the Voorhees Township Police Department, under the direction of Chief Louis Bordi, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

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