Linda Mansi was sentenced to prison for stealing from Arnold’s Furniture

Linda Mansi’s attorneys fought hard Thursday to have her sentenced to probation in Montgomery County after she admitted to stealing $1.2 million from a Bridgeport office furniture company to pay for her vacations, online gambling and personal expenses.

But Montgomery County Court Judge Thomas Rogers saw no reason to grant the residents of Tuckerton, Ocean County leniency.

Rogers noted that this was Mansi’s third conviction for theft, having stolen from two of her previous employers, and having only been sentenced to probation both times. Her actions against the family business Arnold’s Furniture this time were “unacceptable,” Rogers said, and warranted a harsher sentence.

It was clear she had not learned her lesson, the judge said.

“This sentence will send a message to those who consider committing these treasonous acts that this defendant committed over a period of time,” Rogers said.

He sentenced Mansi to 11.5 to 23 months in prison, followed by three years of probation. He ordered Mansi to pay back $900,000 of what she stole, most of which came from bank accounts she managed for the Bridgeport venture over the course of a decade.

The 54-year-old Mansi pleaded guilty in July to theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and forgery, which saved her from a trial.

Among her purchases was $3,000 spent in the New Jersey prison system on behalf of her son, who is incarcerated in Camden County for assault, prosecutors said. She also paid more than $103,000 to the mother of one of his children.

Mansi used hundreds of thousands of dollars in company money for her family, including $11,000 worth of tickets to concerts and Phillies games, the affidavit said. She even used it to pay for her youngest son’s 21st birthday trip to Miami, which helped pay for his plane ticket, hotel and tickets to a rap concert.

She also at one point increased her own salary at Arnold’s by $19,000 and falsified W-2 forms to give her eldest son, then a warehouse worker, a higher salary, prosecutors said.

Mansi’s theft was discovered in 2023, when an executive assistant to Arnold’s owner reviewed a bank statement for a business account the company had created years earlier at Mansi’s suggestion, according to testimony Thursday.

Jordan Berkowitz, who co-owns Arnold’s with his father, said Thursday that Mansi was one of his most trusted employees and was central to crucial functions within the company, including finance and human resources. He and his family were close to Mansi and her family and even bought her youngest son a car for his 16th birthday.

When the theft was discovered, Berkowitz said, he discovered the reason behind the company’s recent financial troubles, which had led to layoffs and other problems that he said he is still dealing with. In retrospect, he said he understood why Mansi had always undermined the CFOs he hired and resisted a return to the office after the coronavirus shutdown.

“This is a pathological individual who has no problem slitting the throats of people who help her, and will continue to do so if left to her own devices,” he said. “Every day she is free, she poses a risk to everyone she encounters.”

Mansi apologized to Berkowitz and his family and said she had accepted responsibility for her actions. She asked the judge to spare her from jail so she could care for her elderly mother, who she said is disabled and needs constant medical attention.

But Assistant District Attorney Gwenolyn Kull questioned Mansi’s professed remorse. Her statement Thursday, the prosecutor said, was the first time she apologized to Berkowitz, and she had yet to begin repaying the company.

“Having two prior convictions for theft and the fact that she had previously only been placed on probation was not enough to deter this defendant from abusing and exploiting her employers,” Kull said. “As a result, they suffered a huge, significant loss.”