A third man convicted in the 2010 theft of $6 million from Columbia was sentenced for three to nine years’ jail time on Thursday.
Judge Robert Stolz of New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan sentenced Walter Stephens, Jr. three days after a pair of co-conspirators were sentenced to at least seven years.
Stephens and three others were found guilty in August of rerouting $5.7 million—from the University and intended for New York Presbyterian Hospital—into a personal bank account for two months in fall 2010.
Stephens’ Legal Aid lawyer had asked the judge to consider giving his client a lighter sentence, citing the 66-year-old grandfather’s poor health and low finances, according to Businessweek.
Stephens, found guilty of three felony charges, including grand larceny and criminal possession, will serve the three sentences concurrently.
George Castro and Jeremy Dieudonne were sentenced on Monday, and Joseph Pineras, the lone Columbia employee of the group, is scheduled to be sentenced in November. Another conspirator and former Columbia employee, Moise Jean-Paul, testified against the four men in exchange for a recommendation of no jail time.
