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Moon Township couple charged for allegedly stealing over $1 million from son’s business

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5 months ago

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Moon Township couple charged for allegedly stealing over million from son’s business

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CORAOPOLIS ― Two residents of Moon Township are being charged with felonies for allegedly stealing a total of over $1 million from a local business owner.

According to prosecutors in Allegheny County, charges were filed against Joseph Ravas, 55, and Tasha Ravas, 41, for theft from PNP Heating and Air Condition. The business was owned and operated by Chris Ravas, Joseph’s son and Tasha’s stepson, who discovered several checks were made out to the couple over the past three years without his permission, which he alleges led his business to bankruptcy.

“My sincerest condolences go out to the victim and his business,” said District Attorney Stephen Zappala. “Running a business is not an easy thing today, let alone to find out someone has been stealing from you. We take these kind of cases with the utmost seriousness.”

According to investigators, Chris was first made aware of his parents’ actions when he was writing a check for a client. While accessing the checkbox, he noticed a large check was written and made payable to “cash.” According to Chris, this should have never happened in the business records and raised suspicions for him.

At the time of the incident, both Joseph and Tasha were on payroll at PNP Heating and Air Condition as members of the business office. Joseph reportedly coordinated several job completion responsibilities and handled clerical issues, with a salary of around $2,000 per pay cycle, while Tasha processed payroll and payable checks, with a salary of around $700 per pay cycle. This was the sole source of income for the couple.

Chris told investigators that when he confronted Joseph about the check, his father claimed it was a form of reimbursement. According to investigators, Chris asserted this was false, as Joseph had never contributed money to the business. Joseph is reported as having donated three trucks and tools from his previous business, but the trucks were later sold by him, with Chris stating that there are no loans or monetary contributions to the business operations from his father.

Using the log-on information for the business’s online banking account, Chris found several checks were written to Joseph and Tasha without his consent. After printing these transactions, a notification was sent from the bank to Chriss parents. At this time, Joseph told Chris if he was contacted by police about these checks, he would flee the country to Mexico.

After this interaction, Joseph and Tasha filed their two-week notice with Chris and announced they would be moving out of the country by June 15. Further investigations from Chris had revealed his parents had allegedly raised their pay without his knowledge, with ADP reports showing increases to both Joseph’s and Tasha’s payrolls being recorded.

Additional thefts were also reported, including those related to debit card transactions related to $400,000 personal home improvements that were made at Joseph’s home on Maple Street Extension in Moon Township. Chris reported large amounts of cash going missing from the safe at his business and said he believes Joseph misused a company debit card to pay for restaurants, groceries and other non-business expenses without his knowledge.

According to investigators, Joseph and Tasha had recently bought a $1.2 million house in Cabo San Lucas and were meeting with officials in New Jersey to finish paperwork to gain citizenship. Investigators were flagged to the thefts and started to look at Joseph’s finances, noting that he had filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and his wages since that time could not realistically afford a house and expensive renovations to his current home.

After working with Chris to collect evidence and investigating several details themselves, detectives from Allegheny County determined there was enough evidence to press charges and issued an arrest warrant late last week. Joseph and Tasha both face charges of theft, receiving stolen property, fraudulent access of a device and conspiracy to commit theft.

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