Summary

On September 22, Cynthia Ransom, former office manager for the New Jersey office of Parsons Transportation Group, Inc. (PTG), pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark, NJ to one count of embezzlement from a Federal grant program. PTG holds contracts with the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJ-DOT), a FHWA grantee. Ransom admitted that, from January 2000 through August 2003, she embezzled $70,000 by creating bogus petty cash receipts for photographic film and related supplies which supported invoices submitted to the NJ-DOT under PTG contracts for inspection of bridges and tunnels. PTG, which cooperated in the investigation, has reimbursed NJ-DOT for all the embezzled funds. Sentencing for Ransom is scheduled for January 5, 2006. The investigation was conducted jointly with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.