EULESS, Texas — A Texas woman pleaded guilty on Friday to embezzling more than $2.6 million from her former employer, federal officials announced.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said 36-year-old Vika Latai Moa, of Euless, was charged on May 17 for wire fraud and pleaded guilty 10 days later on May 27.
According to court documents, Moa admitted that between June 2016 and October 2019, she was employed as an operations manager at Savino Del Bene USA, Inc. (Savino USA) in the Dallas area.
Savino USA is an American subdivision of Savino Del Bene S.p.A., a global logistics and freight forwarding company based in Florence, Italy. The company provides transportation services to its customers in the United States by subcontracting local deliveries to third-party trucking companies, the DOJ said.
Moa's role with the company was to select and pay the local subcontractors.
According to the DOJ, Moa lied to the company that invoices to trucking services were owed and had the company submit payments of more than $2.6 million to a bank account that she had access to. The DOJ said Moa led Savino USA to pay false invoices to fake businesses.
As part of the plea agreement, Moa agreed to pay $2,623,888.44 in restitution.
She faces up to 20 years in federal prison. Moa's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 22.
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