Evergreen Reporter

A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for orchestrating a scheme that defrauded the Lucas County Auditor of over $622,000. Darren Barr, aged 39, from Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to collaborating with others between March 2018 and November 2020 to impersonate legitimate vendors approved by the county.

U.S. District Judge James G. Carr of the Northern District of Ohio also ordered Barr to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution amounting to $622,793.62.

The investigation revealed that Barr and his accomplices used publicly available information to gather details about approved government vendor businesses. They identified Lucas County employees responsible for vendor payments and created email accounts resembling those of legitimate businesses. The fraudsters also opened fake bank accounts using forged documents from the State of Pennsylvania and the Internal Revenue Service.

The scheme involved sending authentic-looking invoices from false vendor emails controlled by Barr's group to county employees. These emails instructed employees to direct payments to fraudulent corporate bank accounts set up by the conspirators. Believing these emails were genuine, employees made payments into these sham accounts.

Once funds were deposited into these fraudulent accounts, Barr quickly transferred the money into other accounts he controlled with his co-conspirators in an effort to hide their activities.

The FBI Cleveland Division conducted the investigation, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Melching prosecuted the case for the Northern District of Ohio.

For reporting fraud, visit justice.gov/criminal/criminal-fraud/report-fraud.