Since 1972, the Greencroft Club has given members and guests a place to swim, play tennis and dine. And today, while the institution nestled in the hills west of Charlottesville appears to be a popular and profitable wedding venue, a recent general manager claimed the club was in such dire financial straits that he embarked on a plan to pull cash from a club bank account and watch an app multiply the money.
It didn’t work.
Former general manager John Francis Van Peppen, 63, has pleaded guilty and faces sentencing later this month for embezzling more than $100,000 by writing club checks to himself.
"The above referenced checks were not related to any business dealings pertaining to the club and were unauthorized," reads the criminal complaint.
The revelations caught a previous employer off guard.
"That’s surprising to me," Amy Cabaniss, the owner of Julep’s New Southern Cuisine restaurant in downtown Richmond, told The Daily Progress.
Cabaniss said she hired Van Peppen to manage Juleps in 2014 after he led several other Richmond restaurants, including stints at the Wine Shop & Bistro, Urban Tavern and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. Cabaniss said Van Peppen was friendly and professional.
"The way he behaved for me for six years was great," said Cabaniss. "He certainly never did anything wrong or bad."
Greencroft is situated in the Albemarle County community of Ivy, about 4 1/2 miles west of Charlottesville city limits.
Hired to lead the club in 2019, Van Peppen appeared an enthusiastic leader who would tout club offerings on his own public social media pages. So did the club president.
Whatever teamwork existed between the two men changed one day last May.
According to the criminal complaint written by Albemarle County police investigator Don Ricci, Van Peppen summoned the president to a meeting. With his attorney present, Van Peppen advised the president that he had "messed up."
From April 17 to May 2 last year, Van Peppen wrote seven checks payable to himself totaling $100,400.
"Mr. Van Peppen had the access, ability and authority to write checks for the Greencroft Club because of his role as general manager," the police investigator observed.
Van Peppen was arrested in August and initially charged with six felony embezzlement counts and, because one of the checks fell under the $1,000 felony threshold, one misdemeanor count.
In Albemarle County Circuit Court earlier this year, Van Peppen and his lawyer were together again, but this time it was to plead guilty to one count of larceny in a deal that dropped the other charges. In Virginia, the penalty for embezzlement can reach up to 20 years of incarceration.
Attorney William Dinkin told Judge Cheryl Higgins that Van Peppen’s motive was noble, that he was trying to save a financially struggling social club. Dinkin said that Van Peppen had learned of an app, presumably computer or smartphone software, that had a way of multiplying money.
The idea, Dinkin said, was that Van Peppen would pay the money into the app and watch it grow. His plan was to then harvest the gains and bolster the club’s finances with the greenbacks he anticipated.
However, the app was a scam, Dinkin said, and all the money disappeared.
"Dear Members," begins an open letter the club posted last June. "John Van Peppen is no longer General Manager of The Greencroft Club. The Board is delighted to announce the promotion of Katy Kirby to the position."
Upon his Aug. 8 arrest, Van Peppen contended that his actions followed a dire presentation by the club treasurer.
"The club was sinking and would be done for soon," was how the magistrate described Van Peppen’s portrayal of the treasurer’s troubling tidings.
Pleading for pretrial release, Van Peppen and his lawyer claimed the sole motive was helping the club and that Van Peppen disclosed his deeds before the club discovered them. They contended that each time Van Peppen would draft a check to himself he logged his name in the account ledger.
"So he wasn’t trying to hide what he’s doing," the magistrate summarized Dinkin’s stance. "He wasn’t trying to deceive anyone."
Van Peppen was freed on bail.
In court on Jan. 27, prosecutor Tyler Sande acknowledged that insurance covered all but a few hundred dollars, the amount of the deductible, of the club’s loss. And the defense attorney also had some acknowledgements about his client.
"It’s a really unfortunate set of circumstances," Dinkin said as the business suit-clad Van Peppen listened. "It was obviously a very poor decision."
According to David Boisvert, the club president, at least one of Van Peppen’s claims is false.
"The club is not in financial distress," Boisvert told The Daily Progress in a written statement.
Since the year-ago revelations, the University of Virginia-educated Van Peppen, with a degree in genetic engineering, has turned to driving for Uber for income. In the days leading up to the crime, Dinkin said his client had suffered a variety of setbacks that will be mentioned at his upcoming sentencing hearing, including a fire that damaged his Richmond residence.
"Too much too fast," said Dinkin, "and it really had an effect on him."
The lawyer has not yet publicly divulged the name of the app Van Peppen used or returned The Daily Progress’ phone call requesting an interview.
People who commit nonviolent property crimes in Albemarle County typically receive sentences with little or no active jail time. However, a particularly large embezzlement from a company associated with the Glenmore County Club in Keswick brought a federal sentence of 36 months plus a state sentence of 1 1/2 years for Michael Douglas Comer. The club treasurer and son-in-law of its founder, Comer was accused of diverting about $2.5 million between tax years 2003 and 2009.
More recently, a Louisa County church secretary who embezzled about $670,000 from her congregation received a four-year active sentence earlier this month. Louisa, however, is known for stiff sentencing, such as a recent 15-month sentence and $432,800 cash forfeiture decreed for a woman who sold cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms in what prosecutors termed an "open drug market."
One other contrast was that the church secretary’s embezzlement, committed over the course of years or decades, still leaves more than half a million dollars to be repaid. Greencroft already has almost all of its money back, and according to the president, its activities and social functions have been operating as usual.
Van Peppen’s sentencing is slated for April 24.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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