A former trusted Stamford employee, Fred Manfredonia, was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for stealing more than $350,000 from the city when Dannel P. Malloy was mayor.
Manfredonia was one of three Stamford employees in different departments who were arrested last year in embezzlement cases that were uncovered by the administration of the new Republican mayor who took office in December 2009.
Manfredonia's arrest became an issue during the gubernatorial election campaign last summer when Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele - a Stamford resident for 50 years - criticized Malloy after the three employees were charged with stealing more than $400,000 from the city.
Two of the three workers had been named "employee of the month'' during the Malloy years, and they had received plaudits at city hall as good municipal employees.
Manfredonia, now 60, was fired last year amid the embezzlement controversy and later arrested.
Fedele made his criticisms when he was running in the Republican gubernatorial primary for governor. Malloy's Democratic opponent, Ned Lamont of Greenwich, never criticized Malloy on the issue and later lost the August primary. Malloy then won the general election and was sworn in as governor in January.
Malloy emphasized at the time that he was no longer the mayor and did not have additional details on the three arrests beyond what he had read in the newspaper.
"Obviously, you do your best to set up systems'' of financial controls, Malloy said. "The city's books are audited on a regular basis. Two of those individuals were caught very quickly, and one was not. It's hard to protect people from dishonesty. ... You have systems. No system is foolproof.''
"Let's be fair. None of these people were direct reports to me,'' Malloy said at the time.
Since he knew that a prison sentence was likely, Manfredonia agreed to be incarcerated in advance of his formal sentencing and has been behind bars since September 20, 2010, according to his Greenwich attorney, Philip Russell.
Until Manfredonia's arrest, he had been deemed as a solid employee in Stamford as the human resources director, Russell said.