Manager stole nearly $500K from company that runs hotels, music venue in Asbury Park, prosecutor says

The regional manager of two Asbury Park hotels and a popular bowling alley and music venue was charged Tuesday with stealing nearly $500,000 from his employer, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced Wednesday.

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Saturday, May 2, 2020 – Asbury Ocean Club Hotel in Asbury Park before sunrise.

Larry Dembrun,Jr. 61, of Montclair, was arrested and charged with second-degree theft following an investigation by the office and the Asbury Park Police that began after hotel executives contacted authorities June 27 following an internal audit, authorities said.

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Dembrun worked for Salt Hotels, the owner of the Asbury Hotel, Asbury Lanes and the Asbury Ocean Club and served as regional manager, which gave him responsibility for managing all three businesses, Gramiccioni said. He’s since been fired.

Hotel executives contacted police after their audit showed that Dembrun wrote numerous checks to pay a personal credit card bill and also issued unauthorized checks to himself and to members of the hotel staff totaling $486,882 between January 2018 and June 2020, the office said.

He wrote $159,898 in checks from the Asbury Hotel’s operating account to pay his personal American Express bills and withdrew $165,144 in cash from the same account and deposited it in incremental amounts into his personal checking account, officials said.

He also issued $12,603 in unauthorized payroll checks to himself and took $51,150 in cash from the Asbury Lanes expense account and kept $6,791 of it for himself, authorities said.

Finally, he wrote unauthorized “bonus” and “incentive” checks to hotel staff, which violated corporate police, Gramiccioni said.

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Chris Sheldon may be reached at [email protected].

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