February 11, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., has denied requests to shorten the prison sentences of William Aramony, former president of United Way of America, and Thomas J. Merlo, former chief financial officer of the charity.
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The full text of the court’s ruling
Both men were sentenced in 1995 by a federal district court in Alexandria, Va., for defrauding the charity of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. Aramony is now serving a seven-year sentence, while Mr. Merlo is serving four years and seven months.
In addition, Mr. Aramony was ordered to pay a $300,000 fine, and Mr. Merlo was fined $30,000.
While the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit disagreed with the contentions of Mr. Aramony and Mr. Merlo that their sentences were too harsh, it did order a lower court to re-examine whether the two men could afford to pay their fines, because the amounts were based on outdated data about the men’s assets. Mr. Aramony claimed in 1997 that his debts exceeded his assets by more than $850,000.
Those figures, however, do not take into account a civil suit in which a federal district court in New York found that United Way must pay $2.38-million to Mr. Aramony under a pension agreement he had with the charity (The Chronicle, November 5). United Way is appealing that decision.
Even if Mr. Aramony gets the pension, it is unclear how much money he would actually have after taxes and legal fees are subtracted. In addition, in an action separate from the federal fine, Mr. Aramony agreed in December to pay United Way $213,000. The agreement was part of an out-of-court settlement in a third lawsuit, in which New York’s Attorney General, in behalf of United Way, sued Mr. Aramony for damages.
