A Yardley woman was sentenced to federal prison for embezzling $830,504 from a Bristol Township-based company.
Joan Baranek, 57, was sentenced this week to two years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Gene E.K. Pratter for embezzling the funds from AirGas Safety between 2006 and 2012. She pleaded guilty in October 2014 to mail fraud and filing a false income tax return.
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The judge also ordered restitution Baranek to pay restitution to Airgas, Inc. in the amount of $567,504, restitution to the IRS of $304,003 in principle and interest, three years of supervised release which includes 50 hours of community service, and a $200 special assessment.
From federal prosecutors:
Baranek was responsible for designing and managing a sales incentive program for telesales centers (call centers). She purchased gift cards and other award prizes with her personal American Express card, and then submitted expense reports to Airgas for reimbursement. In support of her expense reports, she attached invoices for the gift cards and award prizes to the expense reports. Between May 2006 and December 2012, Baranek altered invoices or even created fictitious invoices, which she attached to her expense reports so as to obtain reimbursement for alleged promotional expenses that she never incurred. Baranek submitted approximately 200 expense reports claiming a total of $1.8 million in promotional expenses; of these, approximately 121 of the reports contained altered, fictitious, or duplicate invoices in support of the expensed promotional items, for a total of approximately $830,504 of fraudulent expenses. Baranek filed a United States income tax return for calendar year 2008, that reported her taxable income as $155,419, when her actual taxable income approximately $360,944.
The FBI and IRS handled the investigation into the case, while Assistant United States Attorney Karen L. Grigsby prosecuted the 57-year-old.
