10-25-04 -- Buturla, Laura Jean -- Guilty Plea -- News Release

Former Human Resources Manager Admits $350,000 Embezzlement, Tax Evasion

NEWARK - A former human resources manager admitted today that she defrauded the company at which she once worked of more than $350,000 and that she committed tax evasion for the year 1999, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Laura Jean Buturla, 49, of Bayonne pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. to Counts One and Four of a four-count Information. Buturla, formerly a human resources manager at Agip USA, a former New York City subsidiary of Agip International, an Italian multinational corporation, admitted that in the years1998 to 2000 she defrauded Agip USA by exploiting her position to manipulate her then-employer’s payroll system, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bohdan Vitvitsky.

On the wire fraud charge in Count One and tax evasion in Count Four, Buturla faces a maximum of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. Judge Greenaway set sentencing for Jan. 31. Buturla is free on $50,000 bond pending sentencing.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Greenaway will determine Buturla’s actual sentence based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offenses, and the defendant’s criminal record, if any. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

At set forth in the Information and as Buturla said during her plea hearing, she was employed at Agip USA from 1995 to 2000 as a human resources manager. One of her responsibilities was arranging for payroll through Agip USA’s outside payroll provider, Automatic Data Processing in Parsippany.

Buturla manipulated ADP into issuing numerous unauthorized checks totaling in excess of $250,000 that were made out in her name and that she then cashed. She also exploited her control over various Agip USA bank accounts to cause over $90,000 in additional losses to Agip USA.

As Buturla also admitted, she filed a federal income tax return for the year 1999 in which she understated her income by about $100,000 and the income tax that she owed by about $14,500.

Christie credited Special Agents from the FBI, under the direction of Joseph Billy, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Newark Office, and Special Agents of the Criminal Investigations section at the IRS, under the direction of Patricia J. Haynes, Special Agent in Charge of the Newark Field Office, for developing the case against Buturla.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vitvitsky of the U.S. Attorney’s

Securities and Health Care Fraud Unit in Newark.

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Defense Counsel: John H. Yauch, Esq., Federal Public Defender’s Office, Newark