Financial Services Firm President Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison For $2.9M Fraud Scheme

PITTSBURGH - A resident of Pittsburgh, PA, has been sentenced in federal court to 36 months imprisonment followed by 3 years supervised release on his conviction of violating federal laws, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

United States District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed the sentence on Ronald A. Moog, 78.

According to information presented to the court, Moog was the President of Moog Transfinancial Services, a Pittsburgh based corporation in the business of auditing freight bills for other companies who had a large volume of freight business. According to Moog’s contractual relationship with the victim companies, Moog would inform the victims of the payment necessary to pay off their freight charges. The victims would then send Moog money, which Moog would place into a trust account. For nearly 13 years, the defendant syphoned money out of the trust account for purposes other than paying the victims’ freight bills, leading to a shortfall within the account of over $2.8 million. This amount was passed onto the victim companies in the form of delinquent freight invoices, which they had already sent money to Moog to pay for and which they believed had been already paid.

As part of the sentence, Judge Fischer ordered Moog to pay restitution of approximately $2.9 million to the following victims: Mine Safety Appliances (MSA), Jennmar, Traco, Union Switch & Signal, Neville Chemical, Penn Machine Company, Union Spring, Bradley Paint Company, B.M Kramer & Co. Inc., and E.W. Bowman, Inc.

Assistant United States Attorney James T. Kitchen prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the United States Postal Inspection Service for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Moog.