Stephanie Pater, 39, was sentenced to two years in prison on
Tuesday, September 24. Pater admitted to stealing $264,000 from a prior
employer and current business partner, Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune.
Stephanie Pater had over a two-decade career in commercial
real estate. Pater began her career in the industry as an intern during
her senior year of college at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Following graduation, she worked at Trammell Crow Company, Kaplan Inc. and then
she moved to Kirkland & Ellis as the Director of Real Estate. She
stayed there for about one year and then moved to Tribune Co. in January of
2008, as the Director of Real Estate. Pater left Tribune Co. in 2010 to
form Catalyst Group, LLC, a provider of real estate consulting for various
corporate clients, including Tribune Co. During the bad times of the
economy, Catalyst Group closed and Pater was contacted by American Express.
Stephanie Pater created fraudulent contracts between
Tribune Co. and Catalyst Group, LLC which sent commissions from a real estate
brokerage company to Catalyst. This act took place over a six month
period. Pater was asked for a copy of the contract between Tribune Co.
and Catalyst Group and she gave them the actual contract to try to cover up
that there was any fraud going on.
The type of fraud that Stephanie Pater delved in was mail
fraud. According to the Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information
Institute, mail fraud is having devised or intending to devise a scheme to
defraud or obtain money by fraudulent pretenses by means of false
representations and having that fraudulent document delivered by mail or other
carrier to the appropriate recipient.
Pater was charged with defrauding Tribune Co. in December
2012. In addition to horrible, fraudulent acts committed by Stephanie,
she missed her arraignment three different times which only angered the judge
even more! Pater’s first arraignment was scheduled for January 3, 2013 and
she was a “no-show.” At Pater’s second arraignment, scheduled January 10, she
again did not show and the judge, U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan,
issued an arrest warrant. On January 15, Der-Yeghiayan withdrew the
previous arrest warrant after hearing from Pater that she would be in court for
her next scheduled arraignment. Just 30 minutes before the start of
Pater’s prosecution, she sent out an email to several people claiming she would
be late due to the late arrival of her flight but that she would come straight
to the courtroom. The judge, infuriated, issued a second arrest warrant
for Pater. It was later uncovered that Pater chose not to fly out the
night prior in order to make her scheduled time.
Finally, Pater surrendered and was held in
custody, though only for six days. On September 24, 2013, Stephanie was
sentenced two years in prison for her fraudulent activity. Assistant U.S.
Attorney, Rick Young, had asked for a 3½ year sentence because her scheme took
place over many months. Young said, “The lack of any apparent reason
leads to one conclusion—greed. To have a lifestyle she couldn’t have.”
Pater’s father described her as “fully
committed to her work in commercial real estate.” She said that the
charges against her do not seem fit for her character; she is the divorced
mother of a teenager.
I believe that Pater deserved the sentence
that she got and possibly even more. Mail fraud allows for imprisonment
for not more than 20 years and a fine. Pater should have to pay back
everything that she stole. The cause for this fraud was most likely
greed. Stephanie had her own company and she had multiple clients that
are large corporate companies, in particular Tribune Co. She may have
been doing this just because she could without getting caught. Another
reason Pater may have done this is to continue to live the lifestyle she lived
prior to her husband leaving her. I do not know where he worked or what
type of work he was into but she may have had to downgrade her housing and put
a decline on the spending that she may have been used to previously.
Pater was very wrong in doing this to a company, especially a company that was
filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which she managed the consolidation
for.
Sources:
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