Ex-Savino USA employee pleads guilty to embezzling
A Texas woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $2.6 million from her former employer, logistics and freight-forwarding company Savino USA.
Vika Latai Moa, 36, of Euless, Texas, was charged via felony information on March 17 and pleaded guilty to wire fraud on March 27, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.
Moa was employed June 2016 and October 2019 as an operations manager at Savino Del Bene USA Inc. in the Dallas area. Moa was responsible for selecting and paying local subcontractors.
Savino USA, headquartered in Avenel, N.J., is the American subsidiary of Savino Del Bene S.p.A., a global logistics and freight forwarding company based in Florence, Italy. Savino USA provides transportation services to its customers in the United States by subcontracting local deliveries to third-party trucking companies.
Moa falsely informed Savino employees that invoices for trucking services were owed, which caused Savino USA to pay more than $2.6 million to a bank account to which she had access, according to the U.S. attorney’s news release.
As part of her scheme to misappropriate funds from Savino USA, Moa told Savino employees that a fictitious business was an actual transportation company. She created fraudulent invoices for trucking services that the fictitious business purportedly provided to Savino.
Moa then directed Savino USA to pay the fictitious business based on these false invoices.
Moa faces up to 20 years in federal prison. As part of the plea agreement, she has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $2.6 million. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept.22.
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