Ohio electrician sentenced to 24 months in prison for role in defrauding non-profit medical organization

Date: Oct. 16, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Pittsburgh, PA – An electrician convicted of joining in a scheme to defraud Primary Health Network, a non-profit medical organization headquartered in Sharon, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 24 months in prison on three counts of wire fraud, United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed the sentence on John O’Brien of Masury, Ohio. As part of the sentencing, the Court found that O’Brien had provided false testimony at the trial in the matter.

Three individuals were previously sentenced in the case: PHN’s former CEOs Drew Pierce and Jack Laeng were both sentenced in April 2026, with Pierce sentenced to 40 months of imprisonment and Laeng to 24 months of imprisonment, and Mark Marriott, a former facilities manager at PHN, was sentenced to 30 months of imprisonment.

According to information presented to the Court, O’Brien controlled a company called Keystone Tele-Data, which performed electrical work on a construction project in Lewistown for which PHN was to be the master tenant. O’Brien joined in a scheme to defraud PHN by submitting fraudulently inflated invoices to TopCoat, a company inserted by Pierce, Laeng, and Marriott between PHN and the company’s vendors. Keystone Tele-Data submitted fraudulently inflated invoices to TopCoat, which passed along the costs and further fraudulent charges to PHN, despite TopCoat’s providing no services for PHN. Keystone Tele-Data used the funds in part to pay kickbacks to Marriott.

Assistant United States Attorney William B. Guappone prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Rivetti commended Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of O’Brien.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 16 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.