Oakmont man pleads guilty to stealing nearly $200K from cyber security company

An Oakmont man who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $190,000 from his employer will serve 18 months of house arrest.

Andrew Wolniak, 32, pleaded guilty to theft, receiving stolen property and access device fraud on Tuesday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski.

Wolniak worked as a system administrator for Qintel LLC on Pittsburgh’s South Side from September 2013 to August 2018 when he was fired, according to a criminal complaint.

Qintel does cyber security investigations for companies around the world and employs 80 people.

Of those, nearly three dozen employees had a company American Express card, the complaint said, but Wolniak was not one of them.

Company officials contacted the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office, and said that they believed Wolniak had gotten access to a company credit card and was making purchases from Amazon with it.

CEO William Schambura said the card that was being used previously belonged to him but had been compromised and had not used since the summer of 2017, according to the complaint.

Schambura contacted Amazon and learned that the card the account was associated with was linked to Wolniak’s home address.

Investigators said Wolniak made 394 purchases on Amazon, totaling $191,433 between August 2017 and August 2018.

The majority of the purchases were for car parts and accessories. The complaint said Wolniak operated a car tuning business.

Wolniak also was accused of buying Apple iPhones with company money and then selling them on eBay.

According to the complaint, Wolniak sent a letter to Schambura dated Sept. 10, 2018, saying he used the credit card and charged approximately $17,000 on it. He also said he would cash out his 401(k) and sell his vehicles to pay the money back.

Schambura said the company did not receive any repayment at the time the charges were filed.

In addition to the 18 months of house arrest, Wolniak also must serve 17 years probation, pay restitution and serve 100 hours of community service. He already paid $10,000 toward restitution.