FORMER YOUTH ATHLETIC DIRECTOR SENTENCES TO TWO YEARS IN STATE PRISON FOR STEALING MORE THAN $120,000 FROM NON-PROFIT
US States News
October 14, 2008 Tuesday 4:23 AM EST
The Massachusetts Attorney General issued the following news release:
A Burlington man has been sentenced to serve time in State Prison
for stealing money from a youth organization in which he served as
a volunteer. On August 20, 2008, Raffi Donoyan, age 49, pled guilty
to the charge of Larceny over $250 (2 counts). On Friday, Middlesex
Superior Court Judge Hiller Zobel sentenced Donoyan to two years in
State Prison on one count of Larceny over $250. On the remaining
count of Larceny over $250, Judge Zobel sentenced Donoyan to two
years in the House of Correction, with the sentence suspended for
a period of five years, to be served upon completion of his State
Prison sentence. Donoyan was also ordered to undergo mandatory drug
and alcohol testing, and must receive gambling counseling. Donoyan
will begin serving his sentence on October 24, 2008.
>From early 2003 to August 2005, Donoyan was athletic director and
a board member of Homenetmen Eastern Region, Inc. (Homenetmen),
a non-profit organization based in Watertown. Homenetmen is an
international charitable organization dedicated tofostering scouting
and athletic activities among Armenian youth. The Homenetmen Eastern
Region oversees ten chapters in the Eastern part of the United States.
The matter was originally referred to law enforcement authorities by
Homenetmen. An investigation found that from November 2003 through
August 2005, Donoyan stole more than $120,000 from the organization by
making cash withdrawals from the organization’s account and by writing
checks payable to himself. In early 2005, the treasurer and president
confronted Donoyan regarding irregularities in the organization’s
bank account, and Donoyan claimed that the IRS had taken money out
of the account. In February of that year, Donoyan deposited $20,000
into the organization’s bank account but then resumed taking money
from the account in May 2005 and continued until August 2005. Some
of the funds stolen included deposits paid by young athletes and
the chapters they belonged to so that they could attend Homenetmen’s
World Athletic Games, held in Athens, Greece in July 2005.
A Middlesex Grand Jury returned indictments against Donoyan on November
27, 2007. He was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court on December
5, 2007, where he entered a plea of not guilty and was released on
personal recognizance. On August 20, 2008, Donoyan entered a change
of plea from not guilty to guilty. On Friday, Donoyan was sentenced
to serve two years in State Prison.
The case was being prosecuted by Assistant Attorneys General Molly
Parks and Michael Pine of Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Corruption
and Fraud Division, and was investigated by Paul Stewart, Director
of the Attorney General’s Financial Investigations Division.