Skip to main content
Press Release

Paul Hendler Imprisoned For Series Of Frauds

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

      The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Paul Hendler, 43, of Taftsville, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Brattleboro to 27 months of imprisonment following his guilty plea to federal fraud charges.  United States District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha ordered that Hendler serve three years of supervised release following completion of his prison term and pay restitution in the amount of $550,000.  The court ordered Hendler to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on July 7 to begin serving his sentence. 

      In January 2012, a federal grand jury in Rutland returned a 14-count superseding indictment charging Hendler with mail and wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen money, forgery and engaging in monetary transactions involving more than $10,000 of criminally derived property.  The indictment alleged that, between 2005 and 2010, Hendler schemed to defraud two Vermont businesses he helped found, as well as a New York doctor whom he solicited to invest in one of the companies.  According to the indictment, in the early 2000s, Hendler founded JavaPop, Inc, a Woodstock company that manufactured carbonated coffee-based drinks.  The indictment accused Hendler of defrauding JavaPop of more than $150,000 by misappropriating for his own benefit, in 2007, a $99,000 company line of credit at Bank of America.  It also charged him with making off with $56,000 in JavaPop funds that Hendler received in 2008 after selling four company vehicles. 

      Another part of the indictment alleged that Hendler defrauded a New York City doctor by inducing him to make a $140,000 investment in JavaPop under false pretenses in 2005.  According to the indictment, Hendler never turned the money over to JavaPop but instead used it for himself. $56,000 of the doctor’s money was used to make a downpayment on a house Hendler purchased in Woodstock.   

      The indictment also charged Hendler with defrauding Green Mountain Digital of Woodstock, another business Hendler helped found in 2007-08.  According to the indictment, Hendler submitted falsified and fraudulent documentation to Green Mountain Digital which caused the company to reimburse him for expenses he did not actually incur.  It also charged him with making off with $25,000 paid over to him by another business partner, and embezzling $33,000 from the Blueberry Hill Inn in Goshen by forging the signature of the Inn's owner on a series of checks Hendler issued to himself. 

      As part of the sentence, the court ordered Hendler to pay full restitution to the victims named in the indictment, as well as to the victims of several other frauds Hendler committed after the superseding indictment was returned.     

      This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and the Woodstock Police Department.

              Hendler is represented by Brad Stetler.  The prosecutor is Assistant
U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.

Updated June 22, 2015