Hitachi Exec Charged With Embezzlement
Posted on Thursday, 13 of November , 2008 at 5:19 pm
NEW YORK—The former senior manager of human resources of Hitachi American Ltd., a New York and California based corporation, has been charged in connection with a scheme to defraud the Hitachi America Ltd. Group Health and Welfare Plan of approximately $8 million.
Hitachi America is a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., a Japanese corporation, and it markets and manufactures electronic equipment, computer systems, and consumer electronics, among other products, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. Hitachi America maintained the Plan to provide health benefits to eligible employees of Hitachi America and certain of its corporate affiliates.
Dennis M. Dowd, 52, of Yorktown Heights, who was hired by Hitachi America in 1979, was a senior manager of corporate benefits for Hitachi America until March of this year. He was responsible for managing various aspects of Hitachi America’s employee benefits programs, including the “plan”.
In January 1997, Dowd opened a bank account in the name “Hitachi Group Insurance Health and Welfare Trust”, an account whose creation was allegedly not authorized by Hitachi America. Prosecutors say between 2000 and early 2008, Dowd deposited approximately $8 million into that account, approximately $4.9 million of which were payments for insurance claims belonging to the plan.
Checks totaling an additional approximately $2.9 million from, among other entities, insurance companies and health care providers that were made payable to the Plan or to Hitachi America (or to a corporate affiliate thereof), were also deposited into the account.
Dowd diverted the funds in the bank account he created to pay for personal expenses related to himself and his family, including, among other things at least $1 million in payments to credit cards held in Dowd’s name that were used to purchase, among other things, consumer goods; at least $2 million in checks made payable to Dowd using various spellings of Dowd’s name; approximately $42,000 paid for a Lexus automobile registered to Dowd; and approximately $625,000 paid to purchase a house in Ver oBeach, Florida.
Dowd is charged with one count of embezzlement in connection with health care, one count of health care fraud, and one count of money laundering. He faces a total maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment if convicted. 11-13-08
Category: Business, Courts, Crime, Health, Insurance, Labor, New York State
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