Scripps Heir Sentenced for Embezzling Millions from Family

An heir to the Scripps media fortune was sentenced Monday to 108 months (nine years) in prison for embezzling $3.6 million from members of his family to fund his lavish lifestyle, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced Monday afternoon.

Michael Scripps, 36, of Detroit, was convicted on April 12 of seven counts of wire fraud.

Richard Gleeson, 37, formerly a Merrill Lynch financial advisor in Media, was also sentenced Monday after he previously pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud for his participation in the scheme and testified at the Scripps trial, according to Fishman.
Gleeson was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, according to Fishman.

Scripps was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $3,634,019 in restitution, according to Fishman. Gleeson is to serve three years of supervised release.

From November 2001 through October 2006, Scripps persuaded his uncle and mother to transfer millions of dollars in trust funds to the Merrill Lynch Trust Co. and brokerage firm, where his college friend, Gleeson was a financial advisor.

With Gleeson's assistance, Scripps used fraudulent authorizations to transfer his uncle’s and mother’s money to his own account at Merrill Lynch, resulting in $3.6 million in losses, according to Fishman.

Scripps, who had his own six-figure trust fund plus a $3,900 monthly allowance, used his mother's millions to purchase expensive jewelry, a car, four properties, vacations and plastic surgery.

Fishman credited special agents of the Philadelphia FBI, Newtown Square Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Edward J. Hanko, with the investigation.
The case was prosecuted in Philadelphia by Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, supervised by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey as the former office was recused from the case. Judge Davis imposed the sentence Monday in Philadelphia federal court.