MAN WHO STOLE FROM ARMENIAN SCOUTS TO SERVE TWO YEARS IN PRISON
By Steve Bagley
Daily News Transcript
Oct 20, 2008 @ 05:50 PM
MA
WATERTOWN — A Burlington man who prosecutors said stole more than
$120,000 from an Armenian youth group based in Watertown was sentenced
to two years in state prison.
On Friday, Oct. 10, Raffi Donoyan, 49, was sentenced to two years in
state prison on one count of larceny over $250 by Superior Court Judge
Hiller Zobel, according to a press release from the State Attorney
General’s office.
On the second count, Zobel sentenced Donoyan to two additional years
in the state House of Correction with the sentence suspended for five
years, to be served when the time in state prison is completed.
The Attorney General’s office recommended Donoyan pay full restitution,
but the judge did not order Donoyan to do so.
Donoyan pleaded guilty to two counts of larceny over $250 in an
Aug. 20 hearing.
According to the Attorney General’s office, Donoyan stole from
Homenetmen Eastern Region, Inc., a nonprofit athletic organization
based in Watertown, with 10 chapters across the Eastern United States,
for almost two years.
>From 2003 to August 2005, Donoyan served as athletic director. From
November 2003 to August 2005, Donoyan was found to have stolen more
than $120,000 from Homenetmen.
According to the Attorney General’s office, Donoyan was taking the
money by writing cash withdrawals from the organization’s account and
writing checks to himself. In 2005, the treasurer and president of
Homenetmen asked Donoyan about irregularities in the organization’s
accounts, but Donoyan said it was due to the IRS having taken money
from the account.
Donoyan deposited $20,000 into the organization’s account in February
2005, but started taking money out again in May, the Attorney General’s
office said. Some of the stolen money included Homenetmen youths’
deposits to go to Homenetmen’s World Athletic Games, held in Athens,
Greece, in 2005.
Donoyan will begin serving his sentence on Oct. 24. Homenetmen did
not immediately return a request for comment.