May 20, 2014 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – The Greene County Career and Technology Center filed a lawsuit Tuesday against its former auditor and the bank that held its accounts, attempting to recover money stolen by the center’s former business coordinator Jo Phyllis Popielarcheck.

The civil complaint filed with the Greene County Court names as defendants M. James Milinovich, Milinovich and Co. Inc. and Pittsburgh National Bank.

Popielarcheck, 56, of Millsboro, pleaded guilty in July 2011 to stealing $656,856 from the center during a two-year period starting in December 2008 and ending in November 2010, when she was suspended.

She was sentenced in September 2011 to 6 years and 5 months and 16 years and 1 month in prison, ordered to pay $588 in fines and $695,859 in restitution, which includes the money she stole, plus the center’s auditing and legal fees.

Milinovich served as the center’s auditor in 2008 and 2009, according to the complaint. In the audit he completed for that year, Milinovich failed to detect the fraud and theft conducted by Popielarcheck, the complaint said.

While he acknowledged internal controls presented significant risks and internal controls regarding cash activities indicated major weaknesses, “Milinovich provided an opinion that did not identify any deficiencies in internal controls and found an appropriate audit,” the complaint said.

In regard to PNC, the complaint alleges the bank was aware of Popielarcheck’s job duties at the center, but failed to note large sums of money and numerous checks being appropriated by Popielarcheck into her account or for her own interest, the complaint said.

PNC failed to contact the center to inform it of Popielarcheck’s “repeated pattern” of conduct in appropriating checks to her benefit, it said.

An audit conducted for the center of Popielarcheck’s activities had noted that officials at PNC first made the center aware of the irregular activity related to disbursements payable to Popielarcheck.

A spokesman for PNC declined to comment.

James Milinovich, who is now retired, said he was not aware of the complaint but maintained the firm handled the matter appropriately.

“We did everything regulations and ethics required of us,” Millinovich said. “We could do nothing more than notify them, and we did notify them of weaknesses” in the center’s internal controls, he said. “If we had detected something, (regarding the theft) they would have been the first the know.”