March 29, 2024
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Man embezzled $430,000 from fraternal groups

PORTLAND – A 76-year-old retired businessman who had a reputation as a model citizen awaits the start of a nine-month jail sentence for embezzling at least $430,000 from fraternal groups while serving as their sole bookkeeper.

Bob Libby’s lawyer says his client spent nearly all of the stolen money on care for his wife after she suffered a stroke five years ago. But a longtime friend of Libby who uncovered the crime now describes him as a “con artist” and says he doesn’t know where the money went.

Libby, who pleaded guilty to four counts of theft, declined comment.

The court ruled that Libby lacks the ability to repay what he took, meaning that the fraternal groups will get no restitution. Libby lives on a monthly Social Security check in an Old Orchard Beach apartment.

The victims of the thefts were the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, Deering Masonic Lodge 183, the trustees for the Masonic Temple in Portland, and the Masonic Learning Center. Checks were bouncing and the power was about to be shut off at the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association building on Congress Street when Libby was caught in July 2006.

No one was more surprised than Libby’s only child, Susan Jodice, who got a call from her father telling her he was in trouble.

“We had absolutely no idea,” Jodice, a teacher who lives in South Windsor, Conn., told the Maine Sunday Telegram. “It just blew us away. This is not a person that is a thief.”

Trying to rationalize what her father had done, she thought he may have been developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

“I don’t condone anything that he did. Not any of it,” Jodice said. “The funny thing is, he brought me up not to condone anything like that.”

Libby’s lawyer, Gerard Conley Jr., said his client spent the money on home health care for his disabled wife Charlotte, a retired South Portland High School teacher, so the couple would not be separated.

Jack Gray, who went to Portland’s Deering High School with Libby in the late 1940s, doesn’t buy that explanation and bristles at the fact that Libby has remained free since the embezzlement was discovered.

“We trusted him,” said Gray. “We’ve been betrayed for years. He’s the biggest con artist that ever came down the pike.”

Libby was active in Portland’s fraternal community, notably the Masons and the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association. Both groups own buildings in Portland and perform a variety of philanthropic work.

Gray, president of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, said Libby took over its books in the late 1980s and provided an annual financial report each year.

On July 20, 2006, Gray learned that the electricity and water to the Mechanic Association building were about to be shut off because of overdue bills. Gray went to the bank and reviewed the activity on the account held by the association.

He discovered that Libby had withdrawn more than $18,000 in May. The checking account also showed that Libby had been moving funds from the Mechanics to the Masons, when there was no reason for such payments to be made.

“He was robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Gray said.

Investigators proved that Libby stole at least $430,000 between 1999 and 2006, although the groups alleged more money had been taken earlier.

Joseph Groff, a lawyer hired by the fraternal groups, said Libby admitted in open court that the embezzlement began before his wife got sick.

“Nobody knows for sure when it started and how much was taken before. That will be one of those mysteries,” Groff said.

Libby was expected to begin his jail term last Wednesday, but Conley said he recently had a recurrence of esophageal cancer. The lawyer asked Superior Court Justice Roland Cole to let him get chemotherapy and radiation treatment before he serves his time. A ruling on the motion is expected this week.


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