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Local Business Manager Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Defrauding Employer
PHILADELPHIA – Christina Svanda, 46, of Pottstown, PA, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from her schemes to defraud her employer, a family-owned furniture business with store locations in Pottstown and Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.
The financial manager for the furniture business, Svanda was employed to manage the company’s finances, but instead, she used her position to embezzle funds from the business. Between August 2009 and May 2015, Svanda stole approximately $858,669 from the furniture business’s bank account to pay her personal credit card bills.
Svanda also defrauded the furniture business by wrongfully increasing her pay by a total of $191,359 between 2009 and 2015. The furniture company used a third-party payroll service. Svanda called in the payroll to the third-party service on a weekly basis. Each week, there were changes to payroll, including bonuses paid to sales staff who met sales goals, as well as additional pay earned by the warehouse staff when they worked on the sales floor.
Records from the payroll service show that Svanda wrongfully instructed the payroll service to increase her pay by a total of $191,359 between 2009 and 2015. Additionally, Svanda filed income tax returns that failed to report the $858,669 that she stole from the furniture company’s bank account to pay her own credit card bills.
The United States District Court Judge Jan E. DuBois scheduled a sentence hearing for June 20, 2017. Svanda faces a maximum possible statutory sentence of 43 years in prison, a fine up to $750,000, a $300 special assessment, three years of supervised release, and full restitution of as much as $1,050,029.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Karen Grigsby.
Defendant: Christina Svanda
Criminal Charges: One count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of filing a false individual income tax return
City and State: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Exact Date: June 20, 2017 (sentence hearing)
Sentence or Outcome: A maximum possible statutory sentence of 43 years in prison, a fine up to $750,000, a $300 special assessment, three years of supervised release, and full restitution of as much as $1,050,029
Dollar Amounts: $858,669 (stolen from the furniture business’s bank account), $191,359 (wrongfully increased pay), and $81,497 (tax due and owing)
Key Facts
- State: Pennsylvania
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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