A man from Bath, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of fraud related to pandemic unemployment assistance and defrauding local car dealerships. Justin Heimbach, 34, entered his plea before United States District Judge John M. Younge in Philadelphia.
Heimbach was indicted in August 2024 on six counts of mail fraud and four counts of wire fraud. The charges stemmed from two separate schemes involving the federal government and several car dealerships in the Lehigh Valley area.
According to court documents and statements made by Heimbach, he operated a construction company called TeamKJ Construction. He admitted to causing fraudulent applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) to be filed under the names of individuals who were claimed to have lost their jobs with TeamKJ due to COVID-19. In reality, these applications included false information about job loss dates and employment status.
Heimbach also admitted to defrauding local car dealerships by purchasing vehicles using other construction companies registered or associated with him. He wrote checks for these vehicles from bank accounts that did not have enough funds to cover the transactions.
The sentencing hearing is set for June 11, 2026.
United States Attorney David Metcalf stated: “This case was jointly investigated by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, and FBI Philadelphia’s Allentown Resident Agency and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney S. Chandler Harris.”
