The former regional manager of three Asbury Park establishments has been arrested and charged with second-degree theft after allegedly stealing more than $400,000 from the business, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.
On Sept. 22, Larry Dembrun Jr., 40, of Montclair, was arrested by members of the Asbury Park Police Department and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office following an investigation into the theft.
He was charged with the theft of the more than $400,000 from his employer, Salt Hotels, the owner of the Asbury Hotel, Asbury Lanes, and the Asbury Ocean Club, all in Asbury Park, where he was regional manager of all three facilities. He has since been terminated.
The case background …
The investigation began when the Asbury Park Police Department was initially contacted by hotel executives on June 27, after an internal audit revealed that Dembrun had written numerous checks to pay a personal credit card bill, and had also issued unauthorized checks to himself and to members of the hotel staff.
Following a thorough review of the operating/expense accounts for the hotel, as well as Dembrun’s personal bank accounts, the investigators said that there was evidence that between January of 2018 and June of 2020, he stole $486,882.17 from the company.
Dembrun accomplished the alleged theft in a variety of ways. Unauthorized checks written from the Asbury Hotel‘s operating account to pay his personal American Express bills totaled $159,898.32, according to records.
Records also showed that he made cash withdrawals from the operating account that totaled $165,144.25. He then deposited the withdrawn cash in incremental amounts into his personal checking account. He also allegedly issued unauthorized payroll checks to himself in the amount of $12,603. During the relevant time period Dembrun also took cash from the Asbury Lanes expense account in the amount of $51,150, and kept cash that should have been deposited in the amount of $6,791.25. Finally, he wrote “bonus” and “incentive” checks to hotel staff totaling $91, 295, according to the investigation. All of these acts were unauthorized and violated established corporate policy.
If convicted of second-degree theft, Dembrun faces up to 10 years in prison.
— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office
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