City man must forfeit $1 million after fraud charges STAFF REPORTSPublished: August 5, 2014 ARTICLE TOOLS FONT SIZE: [A] [A] [A] SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER SHARE ON GOOGLE SHARE ON LINKEDIN SHARE ON EMAIL SHARE ON PRINT MORE SHARING SERVICES OUR SOCIAL NETWORKS FACEBOOK SIGN UP NEWSLETTER A Hazleton man who entered a plea agreement with federal officials on charges that he bilked clients of his Hazle Township investment firm of more than $1 million has agreed to forfeit that money, as well as four luxury vehicles, construction equipment and property in Hazle Township, according to federal court documents that were filed Monday. Joseph S. Hyduk, owner and operator of BNA Financial Services, agreed to waive grand jury indictment and plead guilty to felony counts of wire fraud and tax evasion that were filed by the United States Attorney’s office in federal district court, Middle District of Pennsylvania, court documents said. Federal officials charged Hyduk for using his financial services firm to defraud clients of money and property between August 2010 and November 2013. According to court documents, Hyduk improperly diverted funds from his clients to himself without his clients’ knowledge or consent. Most of the money was from clients who intended to have the money rolled into different investments. He instructed clients to make checks payable to BNA Financial instead of an investment company and deposited the funds into his own account and used the money for personal benefit, federal officials said. He obtained approximately $1 million from unsuspecting clients between 2010 and 2013, according to court papers. U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith said in court documents that Hyduk was charged with one count of wire fraud for faxing a form to a life insurance company in Batesville, Indiana, where he sought to withdraw about $60,000 from a client’s account. He was also charged with tax evasion for signing fraudulent federal income tax return in 2010 and 2011 and did not file an income tax return in 2012, federal officials said. He underpaid individual income tax liability totaling $145,632 between 2010 and 2012, court papers say. He was subsequently ordered to forfeit $28,748 in cash, a 2013 Audi A4, a 2008 Audi Q7, a 1996 Mercedes Benz, a 2005 Cadillac Escalade, a John Deere 4410 Tractor, a John Deere snowblower, a John Deere front loader, mower and backhoe attachments to the tractor, a 2004 Arctic Cat 4x4 400 automatic, 19 parcels of vacant land along Hollywood Boulevard in Hazle Township and another $1,001,199.28 that federal officials called a currency and asset forfeiture money judgement. As part of a plea agreement, Hyduk faces a maximum sentence of 25 years of prison, a $500,000 fine and as many as six years of supervised release which would be served at the conclusion of any prison sentence. We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines: To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here. Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 23:52:17 +0000
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