Sheriff Kevin Rambosk praised financial crimes detectives for their arrest Tuesday of a 35-year-old former bookkeeper who they say used her position to steal over $800,000 from a trio of Naples businesses. 

The arrest of Mary Melissa Chancy of 2878 Inlet Cove Lane West culminated a 2 ½ -year investigation by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s Economic Crimes Unit.

“Our Economic Crimes Unit detectives devoted more than 250 hours to this case. This involved tediously dissecting complex business financial documents, obtaining subpoenas from financial institutions, interviewing witnesses, and analyzing records to show the movement of money from start to finish,” Sheriff Rambosk said. “Embezzlement cases are typically time consuming and challenging to prove. This is detective work at its finest.”

For three years, detectives said, Chancy engaged in an elaborate scheme to embezzle funds from companies, including a charity, operated by Vincent “Cap” Mona and appropriate the money to her personal use.

In May 2019, Mona told detectives he believed his bookkeeper, Chancy, had misappropriated $570,000 from three of his companies: Three Palms Design Build LLC, Clinton Investment Group LLC, and Cap Mona Angel Fund, a charitable organization established by Mona to provide financial assistance to two schools and a church in Haiti. An extensive financial forensic analysis by detectives going back to the day Chancy was hired in January 2016 revealed an aggregate funds misappropriation of $800,281.

The investigation found Chancy, who worked from home, recorded deceiving entries in the books and ledgers for the three businesses to intentionally mislead Mona of her misappropriation of his revenue and funds. Chancy also manipulated bank statements which she provided to Mona instead of the actual statements. She also altered the names of the payees to reflect payments to vendors or other employees to conceal that she was the actual payee/beneficiary.

Among the investigation’s other findings:

-From January 2016 to April 2019, Chancy wrote and deposited 109 unauthorized checks in her own name and made three unauthorized wire transfers from Three Palms Design Build’s bank accounts totaling $424,889.93 to her personal bank account.

-From January 2016 to April 2019, Chancy drew and deposited 30 unauthorized checks totaling $224,948.13 from the Clinton Investment Group bank account.

-From June 2018 to March 2019, Chancy drew and deposited eight unauthorized checks totaling $13,500 from the Cap Mona Angel Fund bank account.

-Chancy charged $43,780 for non-business-related expenses to the Three Palms American Express cards without permission or authority for her and her family’s benefit and interest.

-From June 2016 to April 2019, Chancy retained funds totaling $83,939.46 from Three Palms through her personal PayPal and Square accounts. She also retained three check payments for $16,425 intended for Three Palms.

On Tuesday detectives arrested Chancy on felony warrants charging her with grand theft $100,000 or more and scheme to defraud $50,000 or more. She was booked into the Collier County jail and later released after posting $60,000 bond.