Former RISD worker gets 27 months, fine for defrauding school

PROVIDENCE – Patrick Clyne, the former Rhode Island School of Design fire safety manager, was sentenced last week to 27 months in prison for mail and tax fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente.
In August, Clyne admitted to defrauding RISD of nearly $1 million in a billing scheme, charging the school for fire-safety work that was never performed. The plea agreement included the dismissal of similar mail-and-tax-fraud charges against his wife, Ibtisama Bradley.
He was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi, who also ordered Clyne to forfeit any ownership interest in a property in Ballinamore, Ireland, he had purchased with proceeds from the scheme, and to repay RISD $981,794.
From 1997 to November 2005, as RISD’s manager of fire safety, Clyne was responsible for overseeing and maintaining fire-safety equipment including alarm systems, emergency lighting and fire extinguishers. During that period, prosecutors said, he approved fraudulent invoices totaling $981,794 for fire-safety work services performed by Ankh Electric Ltd., a shell company set up for that purpose. Checks paying for the alleged services were mailed to the shell company, prosecutors said.