Northport man pleads guilty to $20M payroll fraud

A Northport man has pleaded guilty to a $20-million wire fraud scheme after his payroll-processing company diverted federal tax payments from thousands of Sacramento, Calif., firefighters and other government worker paychecks.

Albert Cipoletti, 61, former chief executive of Ingentra HR Services Inc., of Hauppauge, faces sentencing in January.

The maximum penalty for his conviction is 20 years in prison and a fine of $35 million. Ingentra was known as Humanic Solutions at the time of the wire fraud.

From 2005 to 2010, Cipoletti billed and collected the correct amount of payroll taxes but paid over lesser amounts to the Internal Revenue Service.

Cipoletti pleaded guilty Friday. His co-defendant, Kerry Seaman, comptroller for Ingentra, will plead guilty to wire fraud Nov. 18, prosecutors said.

Cipoletti also diverted money in the same way from the private companies SanDisk Corp., The Stanley Works and Stanley Solutions Inc.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the IRS and was prosecuted in U.S. Court for the Eastern District of California.

The Sacramento County checks were for special district employees, including the metropolitan fire department and parks and recreation; independent contractors, and some elected officials.