FORMER HEINZ ENDOWMENTS IT PROFESSIONAL SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR NEARLY $1 MILLION EMBEZZLEMENT SCHEME

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — A former information technology professional for The Heinz Endowments has been sentenced to federal prison following his conviction for a years-long wire fraud scheme that diverted nearly $1 million from the Pittsburgh-based philanthropic foundation through a company he controlled.

Charles A. Richardson, 45, of Pittsburgh, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand following his conviction for wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Federal authorities announced the sentence on September 8, 2026.

Richardson worked as an information technology professional for The Heinz Endowments, placing him in a position connected to technology operations within the organization.

Federal prosecutors said Richardson used that employment relationship to carry out an embezzlement scheme stretching from 2016 through 2024, a period of approximately eight years.

According to information presented to the court, Richardson controlled a shell corporation that became part of the mechanism used to extract money from his employer. He authorized payments on fraudulent invoices that purported to bill The Heinz Endowments for work that had not actually been performed.

The invoices included purported work attributed to Richardson’s own shell corporation as well as other vendors, according to federal authorities.

Through that system, Richardson embezzled nearly $1 million from the foundation before the conduct ultimately resulted in the federal wire fraud case against him.

The case demonstrates a form of occupational fraud that can be particularly difficult for organizations to identify when an employee has legitimate access to internal business processes and is able to place fraudulent transactions inside otherwise routine operations.

The core of the scheme was not a single unauthorized transfer. Prosecutors described conduct spanning years in which fraudulent invoices were approved for payment despite the underlying work not having been performed.

That distinction is significant because invoice-based fraud can disguise the movement of money as an ordinary business expense. A payment may appear on accounting records as compensation for vendor work even when the underlying transaction has been fabricated.

The case also illustrates the level of trust organizations may place in employees occupying internal technical roles, particularly when those roles intersect with payment or vendor processes. The federal announcement does not disclose the precise internal authorization process Richardson was able to use, which employees or systems processed the payments, or how the scheme was initially discovered.

The government also did not identify the name of Richardson’s shell corporation in the sentencing announcement or provide an exact dollar amount beyond stating that the losses totaled nearly $1 million.

Richardson’s criminal case resulted in a conviction for wire fraud, placing the conduct within the federal system rather than leaving the matter solely as an internal employment or civil dispute.

U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti announced the sentence, and Assistant U.S. Attorney William Guappone prosecuted the case on behalf of the federal government.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, which Rivetti credited for the work that led to Richardson’s prosecution.

Richardson will now serve the prison term imposed by Judge Wiegand for conduct federal prosecutors said continued from 2016 through 2024 and resulted in the diversion of nearly $1 million from his employer.

The case underscores the financial damage that can occur when trusted internal access, vendor billing, and payment authority intersect without fraudulent transactions being detected. What appeared on paper as payment for legitimate work became, according to the government’s case, the vehicle through which hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken from a philanthropic institution over the course of years.

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