| cached/copied 09-10-11 for original link click here http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-03-30/news/0703290921_1_zim-invoices-federal-prison Chicago Tribune Prison term for bilking Israeli shipping company March 30, 2007 LOCKPORT — A Lockport trucking firm operator was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in federal prison Thursday for sending more than $3 million in false invoices to an Israeli shipping company. Frank Butera admitted in January that he defrauded Zim shipping company with the help of an insider, who also pleaded guilty in the case. According to his plea agreement, Butera billed Zim with invoices sent from fictitious companies with addresses that included his sister's home and the residence of an employee's parents. Zim employee Frank Gabriele III assisted in the scheme by approving Butera's fraudulent invoices in return for kickbacks, according to both men's plea agreements. FBI and IRS agents were unable to determine the extent of the loss to Zim, in part because the company's New York headquarters was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. However, U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon agreed with prosecutors Thursday that Butera, Gabriele and a former employee of Butera's, Marianne Fabiano, must share in paying $3.44 million in restitution to the company. Also on Thursday, Gabriele was sentenced to 3 years 5 months in prison and Fabiano received a 2-year prison sentence. |