Greensburg man admits to stealing $354K from Indiana County golf resort

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The former head of a golf resort and conference center in Indiana County became a federal felon Wednesday when he admitted that he stole more than $300,000 from the facility and didn’t pay taxes on any of it.

Rocco Panucci, 53, of Greensburg waived indictment by grand jury and pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts related to ripping off Chestnut Ridge Golf Resort & Conference Center in Blairsville from 2009 until he was caught and fired in 2012.

Mr. Panucci, who has been employed by other golf resorts in the region over the years, had been hired in 2007 as chief executive at Chestnut at a salary of $100,000.

Federal agents said he used company credit cards to pilfer a total of $354,000. He didn’t declare the embezzled money on his tax returns and owes the IRS $82,000 as a result.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nelson Cohen said Chestnut gave Mr. Panucci access to an American Express credit card and Dollar Bank credit card to be used for business expenses.

He used the cards for personal expenses and had the invoices sent to his home so that the itemized statements weren’t seen by anyone at Chestnut.

He then drafted fake invoices and had the Chestnut staff pay the bills as though they were business expenses.

“These fabrications resulted in hiding what was going on to the owners of Chestnut,” Mr. Cohen said.

As examples, Mr. Cohen said Mr. Panucci used $20,000 in Chestnut money for college tuition for his children and $140,000 for travel, dining and entertainment.

Chestnut discovered the thefts and fired Mr. Panucci on Dec. 17, 2012.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab set sentencing for April 4.

Mr. Panucci remains free on bond until then.