First Assistant Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Flaherty, Jr. announces that 28 year old Robert Coppola Jr. of Woodward Ave., Buffalo, pleaded guilty, as charged, to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller.  This was the highest charge for which the defendant could have been convicted had the case gone to trial.  In other words, Coppola did not receive a so called “plea bargain” and was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

Coppola admitted that between September 24, 2013 and July 17, 2015, while working as the company bookkeeper, he stole $204,154.11 from PCI International, Inc. by forging checks to his benefit and performing unauthorized bank transfers to himself.

Coppola faces a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years in state prison when he is sentenced on January 15, 2016 before Justice Boller.  The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Gary M. Ertel of the Erie County District Attorney’s Office Financial Crimes Bureau.