Ex-controller sentenced to 2 years for embezzling

A former controller who embezzled from a family-owned Westmoreland County company and put it out of business is headed to prison for two years.

Victoria Mazur also will have to pay restitution of $195,000.

U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose imposed those terms on her Monday.

Mazur, 54, of Plum, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2019 in connection with systematically stealing from Gateway Packaging Corp.

From December 2012 until December 2017, she issued herself and her husband 189 fraudulent credit card refunds totaling $190,829, which were deposited into her bank account. She also used the company’s credit cards for personal use for an additional loss of about $4,000.

Prosecutors said she concealed what she was doing by supplying the company owners with fake financial statements understating the firm’s sales

figures.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Karl said in sentencing papers that the actual amount stolen was likely higher but the $195,000 figure was agreed upon by both parties. He said Mazur, who has a prior conviction for embezzlement and additional arrests for bad checks, was trusted at Gateway. But she stole anyway. “For a small company, the theft was fatal,” Mr. Karl wrote.

The firm’s president, Ken Getty, said Mazur’s theft drove the company under. “Victoria Mazur’s systematic theft has created a situation where we can no longer remain in business. We have had to sell our assets of clients to a competitor. Also putting our building up for sale. Twenty-five employees have to find other employment. Some have been successful, some have to take jobs at lesser pay rates, putting stress on their family situations. A few have yet to find employment.”

One employee, Lisa Capozzi, wrote that what Mazur did was “unforgivable.” She said she hoped to retire from Gateway. Instead, she had to find another job at age 55.

“And I was lucky, many of my coworkers ended up at the unemployment office,” she wrote. “All of us have paid the price both financially and emotionally due to the reckless actions of Victoria Mazur.”

Mazur’s lawyer asked for a downward variance but the judge denied it. In addition to the prison term, Mazur will serve three years of probation when she gets out.