ERIE — A Johnsonburg woman has been sentenced to 27 months incarceration for embezzling more than $760,000 from M&M Contractors in Elk County.
Melissa Bittler, 43, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Erie to jail time followed by two years of supervised release and to pay restitution of $765,172.95 on her conviction on three counts of wire fraud.
Bittler had pleaded guilty to the charges in 2001. According to the court documents, Bittler had been the office manager and bookkeeper for the contractors for several years. Bittler bought and renovated her house and purchased a Honda Pilot with the embezzled company money, according to the prosecutor’s office.
According to the indictment, Bittler had a company credit card for business purposes. She would use the card for personal purchases without permission, and pay the charges using company checks with forged signatures. To hide what she was doing, she prepared checks to pay the company’s vendors, entered them into the accounting software of the company, but didn’t send the checks. Instead, she created different company checks with forged signatures to pay her personal expenses, the indictment read.
Bittner opened a personal Square account — which allows small businesses to receive payment via credit card — and charged M&M Contractors credit card for personal payments to herself, the indictment stated.
A sentencing memorandum filed by defense counsel Andrew Lipson, an assistant federal public defender, said that during the time of the embezzlement, Bittler was addicted to pain medication and was not thinking clearly.
Prior to imposing sentence, Senior United States District Judge David S. Cercone noted the enormity of the amount stolen by Bittler and the significant negative impact on the small business that was victimized.
Assistant United States Attorney Christian A. Trabold prosecuted this case on behalf of the government. Acting United States Attorney Rivetti commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Johnsonburg Borough Police Department for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Bittler.
