Trade Show Manager Sentenced to Prison for $376K Fraud Scheme

PITTSBURGH – An Allegheny County resident has been sentenced in federal court to 14 months incarceration and $376,603 in restitution on his conviction of mail fraud, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

United States District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed the sentence yesterday on Anthony Allen Aubrey, 50 of White Oak, PA.

According to the information presented to the court, the court was advised that Aubrey was a trade show manager for Phillips Home Healthcare Solutions responsible for setting up venues and hiring vendors for everything from carpentry to food. He had a good working relationship with Carpenter Connection (CC) and at Aubrey’s request CC would pay vendors and individuals on behalf of PHHS who could not be easily paid through the PHHS system due to timing and administrative issues. In turn CC would be reimbursed by PHHS. Aubrey developed a relationship with Melissa Dougherty and hired her to assist with some of the trade shows. However, the relationship became romantic and Aubrey began to request additional payments for her for services she did not perform or had already been paid for. He created and/or inflated Dougherty’s invoices on his company laptop to support the fraudulent payments. He asked CC by email to issue checks to her and have them overnighted by FedEx. One of those checks forms the basis for Count One. When an audit revealed discrepancies and Aubrey was questioned, he admitted what he had done and cooperated fully. The loss to PHHS was $376,603.

Assistant United States Attorney Nelson P. Cohen prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the United States Postal Inspection Service for the investigating leading to the successful prosecution of Anthony Allen Aubrey.