ALBANY – A second man was sentenced to jail time for stealing money from the Parker Brothers Memorial Funeral Home in Watervliet.
Samuel Catalano, Jr., 59 was sentenced to two to six years in prison and ordered to pay $103,866 in restitution by Albany County Judge Stephen Herrick.
In July, Catalano, of Berlin, pleaded guilty to the felonies of grand larceny and tax fraud.
A year earlier, an independent audit of Parker Brothers uncovered fraudulent account entries from 2010 through 2013.
An investigation by the State Police found Catalano, along with Mark Fiet, stole large sums of money from the funeral home. The two tried to cover up the thefts by filing false entries in the business records, according to Albany County District Attorney David Soares.
Soares said Catalano stole more than $150,000 and failed to report it as income which resulted in multiple tax law violations.
At the time of the theft, Catalano was the director and manager of the rural, hill town funeral homes within the business while Fiet was working as the funeral home director and office manager in Watervliet.
On Aug. 16, Fiet, 64, of Clifton Park, a former Watervliet police chief, was sentenced to six months in jail followed by five-years on probation. He was ordered to pay more than $50,000 in restitution.
