A former facilities manager for Primary Health Network (PHN), a nonprofit medical organization headquartered in Sharon, Pa., has been sentenced in federal court to two-and-a-half years in prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering and for filing a false tax return.
Mark Marriott, 59, of Sharpsville, Pa., was sentenced on May 8. Two of Marriott’s co-conspirators, PHN’s former CEOs Drew Pierce and Jack Laeng, were both sentenced in April.
U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti said, “This prosecution reflects the unfortunate reality of executives abusing their positions of power to commit fraud on a nonprofit organization.”
According to information presented to the court, Marriott engaged in three schemes to defraud PHN:
- First, Marriott conspired with Pierce, Laeng, and others in a scheme in which they inserted a company called TopCoat between PHN and the company’s legitimate vendors. PHN paid TopCoat, which provided no services other than to pay the true vendors a lesser price. PHN’s board of directors was unaware that TopCoat performed no actual work and was made up entirely of PHN insiders. The TopCoat scheme caused a loss to PHN of more than $500,000.
- Second, Marriott engaged in a scheme in which he directed a PHN vendor to provide inflated invoices to PHN in order to fund kickback payments made to Marriott, Pierce, and a company Marriott owned with Pierce.
- Third, Marriott and Pierce used PHN funds to pay for their own personal expenses.
Additionally, Marriott failed to report some of the proceeds of the schemes on his federal income tax returns.
“These crimes are not victimless, and this was not a mistake or a lapse in judgment,” said FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Richard Evanchec. “This FBI and our partners will continue to uncover and prosecute those who think they can hide calculated fraud schemes under the guise of contracts, middlemen, and paperwork. After years of deception and millions of dollars stolen, these individuals are now being held accountable for their crimes.”
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