Vineland man admits to embezzling almost $850K. How did he do it?
VINELAND – A former dispatcher at a local trucking firm has admitted to embezzling almost $850,000 from his employer, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.
Antwoin L. Brown, 55, of Vineland used the money for personal expenses that included home improvements, a pool, automobiles and motorcycles, the state agency said.
Brown allegedly diverted funds through his position as a coordinator who scheduled pickups and deliveries by independent truckers for his employer.
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“Brown’s theft scheme involved creating phony trucking hauls and fake invoices for payments owed to drivers who purportedly made the hauls,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
“But instead of making the checks out to the drivers, Brown would write the checks to himself,” it said.
The Attorney General’s Office identified Brown’s former employer only as a Cumberland County trucking business.
However, Brown’s Facebook page and LinkedIn profile say he was a dispatcher for Krichmar Produce of Vineland.
“He had a great position but greed got the best of him,” said Jay Krichmar, the firm’s president.
“My other key employees remember me always saying, ‘Damn, I thought we were earning more profit,’” said Krichmar, who noted his firm has expanded since the embezzlement was discovered.
“As for my company, I guess my employees would have received better bonuses” if the firm’s true profits were known, Krichmar said.
Brown's attorney also could not be reached.
What did Antwoin Brown admit to doing?
Brown pleaded guilty to theft by deception at a May 11 hearing before Superior Court Judge George Gangloff.
At the hearing, he admitted to writing hundreds of company checks to himself from January 2016 through December 2019, according to the Attorney General's Office.
Brown disguised the thefts by logging the checks into company records as payments to independent drivers, the agency's statement said.
He cashed the checks at local check-cashing businesses and deposited the money in small amounts into his personal bank accounts, the statement said.
The scheme was detected in early 2020, when the IRS contacted a driver about unpaid taxes on checks that had been created in his name.
A plea agreement recommends a sentence of four years in prison and restitution.
Sentencing is scheduled for October 27, 2023.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email him at jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Antwoin L. Brown of Vineland pleads guilty to embezzlement scheme
