Westmoreland County Trucking Company Owner Charged with Failing to Insure Employees; Stealing Government Funds Intended to Buy Insurance

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 30 -- The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office issued the following news release:

Attorney General agents have filed criminal charges against a Westmoreland County business owner accused of misappropriating more than $45,000 from the United States Postal Service (USPS). The money was intended to pay for workers compensation insurance for his employees.

Attorney General Tom Corbett said that Frank Letterine, 49, 5021 Impala Drive, Murrysville, is the owner of Denny's Trucking, a business that contracts with the Postal Service to transport mail.

Corbett explained that Postal Service contracts provide mail transport companies with money specifically to subsidize the purchase of workers compensation coverage for employees.

According to the criminal complaint, Letterine operated Denny's Trucking without providing workers compensation coverage from April of 1999 to June of 2009.

Corbett said that during this 10-year period, the Postal Service provided Letterine with $45,479 for the purpose of obtaining workers compensation coverage.

According to the criminal complaint, in 2006 Letterine indicated that the cost for his workers compensation policy would increase by more than $600; and in 2007, by more than$1,000.

Corbett said that as a result, the postal service increased the amount they paid to Letterine for insurance, but he still allegedly did not purchase workers compensation coverage.

Letterine is charged 10 counts of failure to insure and one count of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received. Each charge is a third-degree felony carrying a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Letterine was preliminarily arraigned before Westmoreland County Magisterial District Judge Charles R. Conway and released on $10,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14, 2010.

Letterine will be prosecuted in Westmoreland County by Senior Deputy Attorney General J. Scott Robinette of the Attorney General's Insurance Fraud Section.

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