The former general manager of two Sag Harbor radio stations, 92.9 and 96.9 WEHM, pleaded guilty in a federal court on Monday to a felony charge of fraud.
Stephanie McNamara Bitis of Sag Harbor, 58, admitted to defrauding Long Island Radio Broadcasting, the stations' parent company, of what the prosecution says may amount to as much as $250,000, by using her company-issued American Express card for personal expenses.
Ms. Bitis, who is vice president of sales at Dan's Papers and a former member of the Sag Harbor School Board, was hired in 2015 as vice president and general manager of Long Island Radio Broadcasting. She was "terminated" in 2017, said Lauren Stone, the company's owner, "following years of lackluster financial results."
Ms. Stone, who was a WEHM disc jockey before buying the company in 2014 and continues today as an on-air personality, said in a press release that not long after Ms. Bitis was fired, she noticed a suspicious wire transfer. She then reviewed the company's transactions for the previous six months and, finding a number of other questionable transfers, hired an outside law firm to investigate.
"That investigation revealed the truth," she said. Ms. Bitis was found to have purchased "hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal charges on L.I.R.B.'s corporate American Express card."
"Among other things, Bitis charged a family vacation to Aruba, personal visits to the orthodontist, boat maintenance and boat fuel, and even tax services for delinquent personal income tax payments. She concealed her fraud by submitting falsified documents to L.I.R.B.'s accountant. She went so far as to create her own bogus American Express statements, removing vendors such as her orthodontist to hide the personal charges."
A lengthy federal investigation followed, ending last month, when the government charged Ms. Bitis with felony "access device" fraud. At her plea hearing on Monday, she admitted to the charges.
Her defense attorney, Thomas Kenniff, explained this week that felony access device fraud is defined as spending $1,000 or more in a one-year period. "She pleaded guilty to a crime with a $1,000 threshold, not a quarter of a million threshold," he emphasized, adding that Ms. Bitis had put her "blood, sweat, and tears into turning the radio station around and taking a business that was in tatters and disarray and turning it into a very successful operation."
"Certainly by a matter of degree, there were and still are great differences of opinion as to the extent and amount of purchases," said Mr. Kenniff. "Her guilty plea, above anything, sought closureâ as opposed to protracted litigation." He argues that the exact amount of money spent has yet to be resolved, and that the number is "substantially less than any number that the station or Lauren Stone will say."
Ms. Stone stated in the release that "these radio stations are a passion -- a true labor of love for all of us who work here. I was shocked and saddened that someone would do this to usâ especially in such a small, tight-knit community. I'm thankful that justice has been served and that she will not be able to defraud anyone else."
Ms. Bitis could be fined up to $250,000, with a maximum prison term of 15 years. However, according to the U.S. Attorney's office for New York's Eastern District, because she has no known criminal record, her sentencing guidelines call for 12 to 18 months. Prosecutors during Monday's virtual arraignment did not ask for bail, and Ms. Bitis was released on her own recognizance.
Sentencing is set for March 26. Between now and then, the Department of Probation will prepare a pre-sentencing report and give advisory opinions to U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown, as to the bottom line in question, while the station and their attorneys will work to come up with their final number.
This article was altered from the print version to correct Ms. Bitis's current employment status. She is also no longer a member of the Sag Harbor School Board.
