Business Administrator Sentenced for Embezzling Funds from Catholic School

Modified: February 6, 2019 1:27pm

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2/6/2019

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 57-year-old Dennis Potozniak of Cheektowaga has been sentenced by State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia to 2 months of intermittent incarceration followed by 5 years probation.

While employed as the business administrator for South Buffalo Catholic Schools, the defendant admitted to writing false checks for tuition reimbursement and raffle winnings, which he deposited into an account for himself. Between April 2014 and April 2017, the defendant embezzled a total of $49,418 from Notre Dame Academy and South Buffalo Catholic School.

In November 2018, Potozniak pleaded guilty to one count of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a Class “D” felony. He pleaded guilty to the highest possible charge in the case against him.

He has paid $65,000 in restitution.

The case was investigated and prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Gary M. Ertel of the DA’s Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit.