A Northampton County man will spend more than six years in federal prison for defrauding the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and several Lehigh Valley car dealerships, according to authorities.
Justin Heimbach, 34, of Bath, was sentenced Tuesday to six years and three months in prison, and must pay $598,257 in restitution for schemes to defraud the federal government and the dealerships, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Heimbach was charged in August 2024, and pleaded guilty in February to six counts of mail fraud and four counts of wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors wrote in court documents that Heimbach is a “fraudster” and “menace to the Lehigh Valley,” who regularly stole from the government and others for years. They pushed for a higher sentence, which could have been up to 93 months.
Heimbach operated a construction company called TeamKJ Construction, and filed PUA applications in the names of people no longer employed by the company because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the release states. The applications had false statements, including that the applicant lost their job with TeamKJ because of the pandemic and the date they lost their job, authorities said
Federal authorities wrote in court documents that none of the applications qualified for PUA assistance because the dates provided were well before any statewide stay-at-home orders . The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry however approved the applications, and provided funds to the applicants, according to court documents. Heimbach took a portion of those funds for his own use, authorities said. These filings were submitted between April 2020 and January 2021.
Additionally, Heimbach defrauded several Lehigh Valley car dealerships by buying vehicles in the names of other construction companies registered or associated with him. He wrote checks for those vehicles on bank accounts that did not have enough money to cover the transactions.
He did this to four dealerships between December 2023 and April 2024, court documents state.
In a sentencing memorandum, Heimbach’s federal public defender wrote that he submitted the claims and defrauded the dealerships when he was “in the throes” of a documented mental health disorder and methamphetamine use. He is remorseful for his actions, the attorney wrote.
Jeremy Isard, his federal public defender, pushed for a sentence of 63 months, a year less than what he was sentenced to.
“He is a young man planning for the future, perhaps as an electrician or underwater welder,” Isard wrote. “His restitution balance will likely follow him forever. 63 months in federal prison is punishment enough.”
In addition to is prison sentence, Heimbach also was sentenced to three years of supervised release.