Wednesday, January 28, 2009

California Couple Ordered To Pay $4.6 Million In Civil Damages Resulting From Embezzlement

Joyce R. Jaska, 49 and Wesley Jaska, both of Apple Valley, California, have been ordered by a civil court judge to pay $4.6 million to Barstow Truck Parts, Joyce's former employer, from which she and her husband were convicted of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Joyce Jaska was employed as the company's treasurer and was sentenced with her husband, who was also an employee, to 12 years in prison for the embezzlement and filing false tax returns as well as perjury. The Jaska's were originally arrested in 2002 on embezzlement charges. Their attorney claims the arrest was in retaliation for Joyce blowing the whistle on the company for not paying payroll taxes. For their part in the civil case, Barstow Truck Parts documented in their civil case $2.45 million in losses due to Jaska's theft. The judgement includes punitive damages as well. The scheme lasted at least 3 years, from 1999 to 2002.

Read the story here, here and here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I find it hard to believe that these people took anything. They were victims of small town politics. They lost their home, 10 year old motor home. The boat that the newspapers mentioned made people think it was an expensive yacht/speed boat when it was a blow up rubber type boat. Joyce Jaska worked for her cousins, Jim and Marsha Rajacich. This started out as a call made to the IRS by Joyce and it ended up as a retalitory mission. Wes was a fire captain who worked for the country for over 30 years...named fireman of the year...saved many peoples lives and this is what he got from the court system in barstow...justice gone wrong