Story by Ethan
On June 23rd, 2025, the arrest of Michael Collins, age 61, was announced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr.. Michael Collins was charged with first and second-degree Grand Larceny, and first-degree Falsifying Business Records. The arrest and charges against Michael Collins were a result of an investigation handled by Principal Financial Investigator Loretta Mapp, Irene Serrapica, Principal Deputy Bureau Chief of the Financial Investigations Unit, Chief of the Forensic Accounting and Financial Investigations Unit Robert Demarest, Rackets Investigator Kyle Breen and Supervising Rackets Investigator Ryan Lemon.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, between the dates of March 8th, 2016, and April 28th, 2024, the defendant is alleged to have embezzled $5,915,712 from two of his former employers in education companies. Michael Collins was originally employed as the Chief Marketing Officer of a financial education company before leaving without incident in 2022. The defendant allegedly had stolen approximately $5 million from the company without it being noticed at the time. The defendant had then worked as the Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer for an education-technology company and had allegedly stolen just shy of $1 million. Investigation into the alleged embezzlement claims that the same methods were used by Michael Collins in both circumstances. While working at the aforementioned companies Michael Collins had allegedly created two financial consulting companies, Quattro Quadrati LLC and Regiondrivers LLC. The defendant had obtained and used several emails, phone numbers, and bank accounts to support the alleged legitimacy of the companies. Michael Collins also created fake presidents and employees for the financial consulting companies and would act as them to bolster the legitimacy of any transactions or conversations held. When creating these fraudulent companies the defendant asked the service assisting him if his identity was able to be “shielded or masked from anyone looking at the two entities through online services or research”. Then using his employment status and position Michael Collins would hire the financial consulting companies and submit fraudulent invoices for nonexistent work performed by them. Michael Collins allegedly submitted 144 invoices to the financial education company and 5 invoices to the education-technology company, all of which were paid out by his employers. He would then transfer funds from the Quattro Quadrati LLC and Regiondrivers LLC bank accounts into his personal bank accounts to spend on club memberships, designer brand products, fine dining restaurants, and extensive traveling including 150 flight tickets. Allegedly Michael Collins had also spent $150,000 directly from a Quattro Quadrati LLC bank account on an engagement ring.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office stated that the charges against Michael Collins are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
