A former NESN employee who was convicted of defrauding the TV network of more than $500,000 to “fund a lavish lifestyle” has been sentenced to federal prison.

Connecticut man Ariel Legassa, 52, was sentenced on Tuesday to 3.5 years in prison and three years of supervised release for the corporate fraud scheme. Legassa was also ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture of $580,000 and a $1,000 special assessment.

Legassa orchestrated a scheme to defraud NESN from December 2020 to January 2022, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In early 2021, Legassa negotiated a contract with a New York company to provide web development services for NESN. Meanwhile, Legassa created a fake business under the same name as the new vendor. He then used this company to receive fraudulent payments from NESN.

During the life of the contract between the New York company and NESN, Legassa created and approved 11 fake invoices from his fake business while approving legitimate invoices from the New York company.

In total, NESN paid Legassa’s fake company more than $500,000. Legassa spent the funds on personal expenses, including a private plane, a Tesla, a BMW, a Land Rover and credit card bills. He also transferred the funds into other accounts under his control.

Related Articles

Did you see NESN’s ‘psychedelic’ Bruins game feed? Sports network found an issue with tech platform

NESN’s Jack Edwards says he’s ‘healthy’ amid Bruins games absences, fill-in Alex Faust gets some rave reviews

“Supplementing your paycheck by scamming your employer is a really bad career move,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division. “But Ariel Legassa did exactly that, taking advantage of the trust NESN placed in him to steal over $575,000 which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle.

“Justice demands that financial fraudsters like Legassa be held accountable for their crimes and today’s sentence ensures that he will pay for what he did with prison time and restitution,” Cohen added.

In November, Legassa was convicted of seven counts of mail fraud and three counts of unlawful monetary transactions following a five-day jury trial.