Lynnfield Man Facing Fraud Charges

This article was updated on September 14th at 9 a.m.

Clarification: The document notes that Mr. Leman is accused of depositing various checks "into his personal bank account, endorsing each with his name or his wife's name." But, to be clear, Mrs. Leman has not been accused of any wrongdoing in this matter.

A former Lynnfield resident is facing charges for alleged fraud stemming from his role as the former controller and acting chief financial officer for the New England School of Law (NESL).

According to documents from the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz is charging Douglas Leman with fraudulently obtaining a total of $173,106.71. The documents list a Lynnfield address for Leman, but also refer to him as a former town resident. The case is numbered 11-CR-10312.

Leman reportedly worked at NESL for about 17 years, about seven of which were spent as controller. He was acting chief financial officer from January 2011 until he was terminated in March.

Background information provided in the court document states that Leman allegedly used his access to the law school's accounting system starting around September, 2008 to begin altering information to create fraudulent checks.

More specifically, the defendant is accused of cutting the checks to reimburse himself for false expenses, or creating false charges on the accounts of former students and then generating checks against those accounts. From there, the defendant allegedly used the signature stamps of NESL's chief financial officer or accounts payable clerk on these checks, without their knowledge, according to court documents.

The documents state that Leman also allegedly tried to conceal his activities by canceling the false charges on the student accounts by reducing the tuition or writing them off as a bad debt. Between September 2008 and March of this year, the defendant is accused of having created 68 of these fraudulent checks and then depositing them into his own bank account.

Leman is currently facing one charge of accessing a protected computer to defraud and obtain value, and a separate charge of making, uttering or possessing a forged security. The second count apparently involves one specific check for $2,900 that bore the previously mentioned signature stamps.

Elsewhere as of early Tuesday, Leman was also listed as the treasurer for the Lynnfield METCO Helping Hands program.