Man sentenced for defrauding Lucas County auditor of more than $600,000

LUCAS COUNTY — A Philadelphia man has been sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme that defrauded the Lucas County Auditor’s Office out of more than $622,000.

Darren Barr, 39, pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James G. Carr of the Northern District of Ohio.

In addition to his prison term, Barr was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay $622,793.62 in restitution.

According to court documents, Barr and his co-conspirators carried out the scheme between March 2018 and November 2020.

They posed as legitimate vendors approved to do business with Lucas County, using information obtained from public websites to impersonate real companies.

The group set up fraudulent email accounts that mimicked the vendors and created fake corporate bank accounts using forged State of Pennsylvania and IRS documents.

They then submitted legitimate-looking invoices to Lucas County employees responsible for vendor payments, instructing them to send funds to the fraudulent accounts.

Believing the invoices were legitimate, county employees unknowingly transferred funds to the scammers’ accounts.

Once the payments were deposited, Barr quickly funneled the money into other accounts controlled by the group to hide their activities.

The case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Melching.

Authorities emphasized the importance of vigilance in preventing similar schemes and applauded the efforts of law enforcement in bringing Barr and his co-conspirators to justice.