Sentenced to four years
Damian Williams, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, announced that Lars Winkelbauer, former COO of Polar, has been sentenced to four years in prison by US district judge Jesse M. Furman in connection with a massive scheme to defraud Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, (“Polar”), a cargo airline, of more than USD 32 million dollars in revenue. Winkelbauer previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Williams: “Winkelbauer abused his high-level position at Polar for over a decade, extracting millions of dollars in kickbacks for himself and causing tens of millions of dollars of harm to the company. The substantial sentence imposed today sends an important message: corporate corruption doesn’t pay.”
The fraud involved a substantial portion of Polar’s senior management and at least ten customers and vendors of the airline for over a decade. (cj)