The former accountant of a famed musical-comedy troupe at Princeton University was accused of embezzling at least $100,000 from the club since 2010.
55-year-old Hightstown native Thomas John Muza worked as the money man for the Princeton Triangle Club for 20 years before he was discovered to be embezzling over $100,000 from the troupe.
According to Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman, who released a statement to the press on Monday, Muza was charged with second-degree theft by unlawful taking, and turned himself into cops at the Division of Criminal Justice on Nov. 27. He was later released from police custody.
Muza worked as an accountant for the independent non-profit group - whose alumni include F. Scott Fitzgerald - in addition to his full-time job as general manager of McCarter Theater, another troupe at Princeton, according to the Associated Press. He admitted that he'd started taking funds from the group earlier than 2010, but authorities could only confirm thefts from that year on. He was removed from both of his positions at Princeton on November 19.
Muza, who made about $4,000 a year working for the Triangle Club, was a signatory on the bank account for the troupe, My Central Jersey reported. He was said to have stolen at least $100,000 from the club by writing official checks to himself, then depositing the money into his own account. Authorities reported that Muza, on a few occasions, allegedly signed Triangle Club checks for $30,000 directly to his own credit card company to pay off his debts.
"The members and trustees of the Triangle Club trusted Muza as a prominent, longstanding member of Princeton's theater community, but he corruptly betrayed their trust," Hoffman wrote in his statement. "When his personal finances got tight, Muza allegedly treated the club's bank account like it was his own, stealing huge sums."
If he's indicted, Muza could face up to 10 years in state prison, along with a fine of about $150,000.
