Skip to main content
Press Release

Fourth Defendant Sentenced To 18 Months In Prison For Defrauding Clifton-Based Trucking Company Of More Than $900,000

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. – A Clifton, New Jersey, woman was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for her role in a scheme to defraud a New Jersey-based trucking company of more than $900,000, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.   

Lisa Popewiny, 56, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo to Count One of an indictment charging her with wire fraud. Brothers Miguel Vidal, Angel D. Vidal, and Angel Gabriel Vidal previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges for their roles in the scheme. Judge Arleo imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in Court:

Popewiny was the payroll clerk at Clifford B. Finkle Jr. Inc., a Clifton company that provided transportation and freight services to various public and private entities located in New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere.  From June 2012 to April 2015, Popewiny, and the Vidals, including Miguel Vidal – a former truck driver for the Company – engaged in a scheme to defraud the company of $920,380. 

Popewiny falsified payroll records in order to generate fraudulent paychecks payable to non-existent employees, including the Vidal brothers. All of the Vidal brothers have admitted to allowing the use of their personal identifying information to generate the fraudulent paychecks.  The three men then converted the fraudulent paychecks, many of which were deposited into their bank accounts and then funneled out of the accounts in cash. Miguel Vidal admitted to recruiting other individuals to provide their personal information so that Popewiny could falsely add them to the payroll. Popewiny input false hours for at least 12 different individuals. The scheme came to light when owners of the company, in an effort to investigate suspected fraud, distributed the payroll checks to employees – a task normally completed by Popewiny. After all of the payroll checks had been distributed, several paychecks remained unclaimed that turned out to be fraudulently issued. 

In addition to the prison term, Judge Arleo sentenced Popewiny to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $920,379 in restitution and $735,591 in forfeiture.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited criminal investigators in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and postal inspectors from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Judy Ramos, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cari Fais, of the Special Prosecution Division, and Lee M. Cortes Jr., Deputy Chief of the Special Prosecutions Division.

Defense counsel: Christopher D. Adams Esq., Holmdel, New Jersey

Updated August 20, 2018

Topic
Public Corruption
Press Release Number: 18-269