{"id":783489,"date":"2026-05-09T04:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783489\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T04:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:30:19","slug":"this-was-not-a-mistake-or-lapse-in-judgment-man-involved-in-healthcare-nonprofit-fraud-behind-bars-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783489\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This was not a mistake or lapse in judgment\u2019: Man involved in healthcare nonprofit fraud behind bars | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"prison\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"2036\" height=\"1018\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/696b011b6cf7d.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"100\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A former facilities manager for a Sharon-based healthcare nonprofit has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release for conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering plus filing a false tax return.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Marriott, of Sharpsville, stood before a federal court in Pittsburgh Friday, where he had previously pled guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing is the latest development in a long-running investigation into the Primary Health Network, a nonprofit that provides medical services to underserved populations.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Marriott, 59, and other executives used their positions to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization through sham contracts and kickbacks between 2015 and 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Pull Quote<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Richard Evanchec<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The indictment identified Marriott as PHN&#8217;s former facilities administrator, supervising projects, including maintenance of existing facilities and building new PHN facilities. His duties included hiring contractors.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment alleged that Marriott created phony invoices from a shell company he co-owned for work and services the company never provided to PHN.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, Marriott also helped coordinate a kickback arrangement where a vendor inflated bids and returned a portion of the payments to Marriott and former CEO Drew Pierce.<\/p>\n<p>The nonprofit\u2019s funds were used to pay for personal expenses and labor at the private homes of the executives, according to investigators.<\/p>\n<p>In April, Pierce was sentenced to nearly three and a half years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This prosecution reflects the unfortunate reality of executives abusing their positions of power to commit fraud on a non-profit organization,&#8221; U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti said in a Friday release.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI agents handling the PHN fraud scheme said it resulted in years of deception and millions of dollars stolen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These crimes are not victimless, and this was not a mistake or a lapse in judgment,&#8221; FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Richard Evanchec stated in a release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office. &#8220;The 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RELATED COVERAGE:<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmj.com\/news\/local-news\/sharon\/sentencing-today-of-sharpsville-man-for-fraud-conspiracy\/article_1fef21ff-70e6-4eb0-8bba-de97c1ed0bc8.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Sentencing today of Sharpsville man for fraud conspiracy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmj.com\/news\/local-news\/sharon\/former-ceo-of-sharon-health-nonprofit-sentenced-to-prison\/article_d6193ba2-3d60-4410-896c-bd33337be3b8.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Former CEO of Sharon health nonprofit sentenced to prison<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former facilities manager for a Sharon-based healthcare nonprofit has been sentenced to two and a half years&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":783490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,320498,16819,17024,18402,67,132,68,42655],"class_list":["post-783489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-healthcare-nonprofit","tag-money-laundering","tag-sentencing","tag-tax-fraud","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wire-fraud"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116542743759719546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}