Former NESN exec arrested on fraud and money-laundering charge

A former NESN vice president already being sued by the sports network over alleged financial improprieties was arrested today on a federal charge related to the way he allegedly funneled money to a bogus contracting firm he set up rather than the actual contractor the network had hired.

Ariel Legassa, of Burlington, CT, was NESN's vice president for digital media until it fired and sued him last month.

In a complaint unsealed today, the US Attorney's office formally charged him with mail fraud in connection with the $575,000 he used his NESN position to direct a non-existent company called Alley CT he allegedly created to steal money that was supposed to go to an actual online consultant in New York called Alley NY.

According to an affidavit by an FBI agent on the case:

During the pendency of the contract between Alley NY and NESN, in addition to approving legitimate invoices from Alley NY, LEGASSA created and approved several fake invoices from Alley CT. LEGASSA misrepresented to NESN that Alley CT was part of the legitimate contract involving Alley NY. Instead, Alley CT was a company that LEGASSA created, controlled, and that had no real business purpose. In all, NESN paid Alley CT $575,500. LEGASSA deposited these funds into a bank account in the name of Alley CT that he controlled.

The affidavit adds:

On April 8, 2021, LEGASSA sent an email to Employee 1 directing Employee 1 to establish two separate accounts for “Alley” in NESN’s internal accounting program—one for Alley NY and another for Alley CT. In his email, LEGASSA wrote that Alley NY had “two entities working together but separately incorporated. They plan to merge the two entities at the end of the year, and they asked me to please create a separate account and sent[sic] payment separately until then.” This representation was false, as Alley NY did not have two separate entities working on the project with NESN. In a follow-up email, LEGASSA explained that going forward, he would provide instructions to Employee 1 as to whether invoices should be billed to Alley CT or Alley NY.

Legassa allegedly used the money to make car, tax and credit-card payments.

Innocent, etc.