PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Angela DiPietro-Sabatine, 57, of Pennsauken, NJ, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $2,644,543 in restitution and the same amount in criminal forfeiture by United States District Court Judge Joshua D. Wolson for her theft of more than $2.6 million dollars from her former employer, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC), an organization whose mission is to design, develop, and manage the central Delaware River waterfront from Oregon to Allegheny Avenues for the benefit of Philadelphia residents.
In February 2022, the defendant pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and bank fraud in connection with a scheme to create false financial records for the non-profit and then steal the funds for her personal use. As Accounting Administrator for DRWC, her duties included managing the accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliations, and general ledger work. DiPietro-Sabatine used the non-profit’s computerized accounting software to create false expense items for legitimate vendors of DRWC in order to invoice services that were never rendered. The defendant then generated DRWC checks for these false expense items, manipulated the computerized accounting software to change the payee on the check from the legitimate vendor to herself, and forged the signatures of DRWC’s authorized signatories, the President and Vice President, on these unauthorized checks made payable to herself. She spent the stolen proceeds, more than $2.6 million, on personal expenses, including gambling and luxury vacations.
“Organizations, especially non-profits and charities with a mission to benefit the public good, must be able to rely on the honesty of employees who handle money,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “DiPietro-Sabatine went to great lengths to hide her criminal conduct from her employer for many years, but justice finally caught up with her. We appreciate DRWC’s cooperation in this investigation so the defendant could be held accountable for her actions.”
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nancy Potts.