New Castle woman goes to fed prison for embezzlement

PITTSBURGH — A New Castle, Pa., resident has been sentenced to 42 months in federal prison and ordered to make $647,108 in restitution for thefts from a South Hills car dealership, where she was office manager.

Deborah Cassini, 61, of West Laurel Avenue, drew the sentence Wednesday after pleading guilty to wire fraud and filing false income tax returns. She will be on supervised release for three years after prison.

Cassini’s embezzlement scheme included 163 on-line payments to her personal credit cards from Three Rivers Volkswagen’s bank account, issuing herself extra pay 98 times, skimming cash hundreds of times and concealing the thefts with false accounting entries, the U.S. Attorney said.

The case was investigated by the IRS and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.