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| File Photo - Laurence Leavy, speaks to reporters |
By Erika Pesantes, Sun Sentinel
It was a foul play on Marlins Man.
Laurence Leavy, a Davie lawyer better known as the orange-clad superfan who sits behind home plate, was defrauded of about $1.5 million from his personal and business accounts. The culprit: his trusted bookkeeper.
Maria Alonso, 59, created bogus vendor invoices and then used the law firm's computer system to generate checks to pay the invoices.
She would convert those checks into money orders and deposit them into her own personal bank account. Leavy said Alfonso used the Wells Fargo branch in the building that he owned and where his law firm operates.
According to a plea agreement, Alonso issued over 1,000 fake checks totaling over $1 million.
Alonso pleaded guilty this week to bank fraud and was sentenced in federal court to four years in prison, records show. She will be on supervised release for five years after her sentence. She is ordered to repay what she stole, $1.5 million.
Alonso worked for Leavy, who practices workers compensation law, for 17 years before he discovered the fraud during an audit in 2016. Court records show Alonso began embezzling money from her boss in 2009.
"As we dug more and more and more, it was staggering to me," Leavy said. "I felt professionally raped."
Alonso's attorney, Miguel Del Aguila, said Thursday that "she's extremely repentant for what she did." He declined to comment further.
Leavy became known as Marlins Man about six years ago when he was noticed sitting behind home plate in his bright orange jersey. He travels the country in his signature uniform to various sporting events throughout the year. Marlins Man is also known for treating strangers to games and just requesting that they pay the good deed forward.
This season, Marlins Man is missing from his beloved team's games. Leavy had been a season ticket holder since the Marlins debuted in 1993, but he squabbled with the team over prices, and now he's absent from the stands.
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