| A former senior vice president at Bank of America and her husband were sentenced last week in federal court in Boston for embezzling more than $2.7 million from the bank using fraudulent donations to nonprofit organizations.
Palestine Ace, also known as Pam Ace, 45, a former senior vice president of BofA’s global wealth and investment management division, was sentenced on Nov. 14 to one year and one day in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $2.78 million. Her husband, Jonathan R. Ace, 46, was sentenced to two years in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of roughly $1.86 million.
Palestine Ace pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, five counts of wire fraud and 12 counts of bank fraud; Jonathan Ace pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of engaging in an unlawful monetary transaction.
From approximately October 2010 to April 2015, the couple engaged in an embezzlement and kickback scheme to defraud BofA of approximately $2.7 million using fraudulent donations to nonprofit organizations.
As part of the scheme, Palestine Ace used her position as a senior vice president at BofA to misappropriate funds from a marketing budget and transfer the money to nonprofit organizations.
Specifically, Palestine Ace authorized 75 transactions, each under $50,000, to nonprofit organizations in Boston and Atlanta. The couple then informed the nonprofit organizations that a substantial portion of the donated funds had to be returned in order to ensure that BofA would continue to fund the organization.
The nonprofit organizations either wrote a check to Jonathan Ace or a co-conspirator, or they returned funds to a BofA account to which the couple had access. On various occasions, Jonathan Ace pressured the recipients of the donated funds to return a higher percentage of the funds to him, by using intimidation and threats of public humiliation.
Palestine and Jonathan Ace used a portion of the funds they embezzled to support their lifestyle and pay for personal expenses, including lavish birthday parties and the purchase of a $17,000 Kawasaki motorcycle.
