A Butler man is facing up to 20 years in prison for his role in stealing over one million dollars from a local electric company.
63-year-old Paul Harmon pled guilty in federal court this week to one count of wire fraud after he admitted to embezzling around $1.5 million from Fuellgraf Electric Company in Butler.
Harmon was the longtime controller for Fuellgraf, in which he oversaw the organization’s finances for more than 40 years.
Prosecutors say the crimes took place from at least October 2009 until he was fired in December 2018.
During that time, Harmon stole funds in a variety of ways, including making over $500,000 in payments to his own personal credit card balance, duplicating payroll disbursements to himself which totaled $400,000.
He also misappropriated $200,000 in corporate checks that were written to cash. Another $200,000 was issued to another entity, PM Accounting which was controlled by Harmon, for work that was never done.
Department of Justice officials say that Harmon concealed all of these actions by creating hundreds of false entries in the Fuellgraf books and records that “masked the true nature and purpose of their expenditures.”
He agreed to pay restitution to Fuellgraf in an amount just over $1.4 million.
*Correction: A previous post listed Fuellgraf as a Propsect based business. It is located in Butler Township.