Ex-Quincy official sentenced for embezzling city funds

A former Quincy official was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison for embezzling city funds to pay for items including steaks, a Toyota Prius and a framed selfie, according to federal prosecutors.

Thomas Clasby Jr., 62, of Fitchburg, pleaded guilty in March to embezzlement, mail and wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2025.

After being sentenced to prison, Clasby will face six months of home confinement and one year of supervised release, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement. statement. He was also ordered to pay more than $136,000 in restitution.

From 1999 to April 2024, Clasby served as Director of the Quincy Division of Hospice Services. He was fired by Mayor Thomas Koch amid “financial irregularities” and an ongoing Quincy police investigation.

In 2019, Clasby began exploiting the city purchase for personal expenses, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement. He used municipal funds to pay for various goods and services, including, but not limited to, $8,950 for a Weymouth music studio to produce recordings of him singing the songs, $2,236 for 153 pounds of bourbon steak, $4,800 for a Toyota Prius, and $1,658 for a “painted, mounted and framed selfie.”

Clasby also arranged for the city to pay more than $38,000 to a New York consulting firm owned by his friend. The consulting firm has never provided services to the city. Instead, Clasby’s friend cashed the checks and delivered them to him at a rest stop in Framingham, a ferry terminal in Bridgeport, Conn., and the friend’s apartment in New York, according to the statement.

From June 2021 to mid-April 2024, the Department of Aging Services collected more than $57,000 in cash from Kennedy Center programs. Clasby stole the majority of the department’s cash receipts and removed money from the safe in which the program’s revenues were kept.

“Clasby’s actions misdirected taxpayer dollars, degraded government services and eroded public trust,” said U.S. Attorney Leah Foley. He added: “I hope today’s ruling sends a dissuasive message to others that if you steal from taxpayer-funded programs you will be held accountable.”