07-26-05 -- Buturla, Laura Jean -- Sentencing -- News Release

Human Resources Manager from Bayonne Sentenced to 37 Months for Embezzlement

NEWARK - A former human resources manager who defrauded her employer of more than $350,000 and evaded paying taxes on the money was sentenced today to 37 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. ordered Laura Jean Buturla, 50, of Bayonne to pay $354,434 in restitution to her former employer. Judge Greenaway said Buturla must surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons by Oct. 17.

Buturla pleaded guilty on Oct. 25, 2004, to one count of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bohdan Vitvitsky.

Buturla was formerly a human resources manager at Agip USA, a former New York City subsidiary of Agip International, an Italian multinational corporation. Buturla admitted at her plea hearing that in the years1998 to 2000 she had defrauded Agip USA by exploiting her position to manipulate her then-employer's payroll system.

One of Buturla's responsibilities as human resources manager was to arrange for payroll through Agip USA's outside payroll provider, Automatic Data Processing in Parsippany.

Buturla manipulated ADP into issuing numerous unauthorized checks totaling in excess of $250,000 that were made out in her name and that she then cashed. She also exploited her control over various Agip USA bank accounts to cause more than $90,000 in additional losses to Agip USA.

Buturla also admitted that she filed a federal income tax return for the year 1999 in which she understated her income by about $100,000 and the income tax that she owed by about $14,500.

Christie credited Special Agents from the FBI, under the direction of Leslie Wiser, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Newark Office, and Special Agents of the Criminal Investigations Division of the IRS, under the direction of Patricia J. Haynes, Special Agent in Charge of the Newark Field Office, for developing the case against Buturla.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vitvitsky of the U.S. Attorney's

Securities and Health Care Fraud Unit in Newark.

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Defense Counsel: John H. Yauch, Esq., Federal Public Defender's Office, Newark