Boston Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2011/05/10/da-freemason-treasurer-embezzled-1m.html

Suffolk DA: Boston Freemasons' treasurer embezzled $1.25M

May 10, 2011

by Galen Moore

A Maine man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges he embezzled more than $1.25 million from two Boston-based chapters of the Freemasons fraternal order.

From 1999 until September, 2007, Vincent Paul Reed Jr. was the elected treasurer of two Masons chapters that meet at the Masons' lodge on Tremont Street in Boston's Theater District — the Boston Council of Royal Select Master Masons and the St. Paul's Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons — according to the Suffolk County district attorney's office.

Reed, of Shapleigh, Me., was arraigned today on charges he embezzled $1.25 million from the two organizations during that time, spending the money on travel, utilities, pets, collectibles and personal credit cards.

According to Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley, Reed's embezzlement scheme siphoned money from investment accounts held by the two Freemason chapters with UBS Painewebber into accounts at Bank of America Bank of America

Follow this company , where both organizations held operating funds. Reed then allegedly spent the money illicitly via a debit card that the Masons did not know existed, and checks.

Reed's attorney, Joseph James Balliro Jr., of Boston, did not return a call seeking comment. The case is scheduled to go to trial next January.