DOJ 2025-11-14: Kentucky Man Sentenced for Role in Scheme to Defraud Boone County Schools

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia, dated 2025-11-14, announcing that Jesse Marks, 65, of Rush, Kentucky, was sentenced on November 13, 2025, to five years of federal probation, including one year and six months on home detention, and ordered to pay $3,448,571.85 in restitution for conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Marks admitted conspiring with Michael David Barker, then maintenance director of Boone County Schools, to overbill the school system for custodial supplies sold by Rush Enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marks estimated that approximately 80 percent of the payments Rush Enterprises received, or $3,448,571.85, was for products never delivered. Barker was sentenced on November 10, 2025, to two years and nine months in prison.

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Title: Kentucky Man Sentenced for Role in Scheme to Defraud Boone County Schools
Date: 2025-11-14
URL: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdwv/pr/kentucky-man-sentenced-role-scheme-defraud-boone-county-schools
Component: USAO - West Virginia, Southern
Text as published in the justice.gov press-release API record (https://www.justice.gov/api/v1/press_releases.json?title=Kentucky+Man+Sentenced+Boone+County+Schools&pagesize=50&fields=title%2Curl%2Cdate%2Cbody%2Cuuid%2Ccomponent%2Cnumber%2Cchanged%2Ccreated), retrieved 2026-09-30T11:25:32Z:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Jesse Marks, 65, of Rush, Kentucky, was sentenced on Thursday, November 13, 2025, to five years of federal probation, including one year and six months on home detention, and ordered to pay $3,448,571.85 in restitution for conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Marks admitted that he conspired with Michael David Barker to overbill the Boone County Schools system while Barker was its maintenance director during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 According to court documents and statements made in court, Marks was the sole owner and operator of Rush Enterprises when Barker contacted him in November 2019 about Rush Enterprises selling custodial and janitorial supplies to Boone County Schools. Marks agreed to supply Boone County Schools with hand soap, trash can liners, facemasks, face shields, and hand sanitizer among other items.
 During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools received additional government funds to ensure that students and staff could attend in-person learning in a safe and clean environment. Marks admitted that he and Barker entered into the overbilling scheme around March 2020. From that time until on or about December 2023, Barker submitted fraudulent invoices to Boone County Schools on behalf of Rush Enterprises that significantly inflated the number of products it was delivering to Boone County Schools. The Boone County Board of Education relied on the fraudulent invoices to issue checks to Rush Enterprises using the United States Postal Service.
 Marks estimated that approximately 80 percent of the total payments received by Rush enterprises from Boone County Schools, or $3,448,571.85, was for products never delivered. Marks admitted that he gave Barker at least half of the fraudulent profits from the overbilling scheme after deducting the cost of the products actually delivered to Boone County Schools. Marks deposited the mailed checks from Boone County Schools into the business bank account for Rush Enterprises, wrote himself checks on that account that he cashed at various banks, and personally delivered cash to Barker in manila envelopes.
 Barker, 48, of Foster, was sentenced on November 10, 2025, to two years and nine months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $3,448,571.85 in restitution for conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Barker pleaded guilty on April 7, 2025, admitting that he conducted the scheme while employed as the Boone County Schools maintenance director.
 “Justice prevailed due to the tremendous teamwork of our federal and state law enforcement agencies,” United States Attorney Moore Capito said. “These two defendants enriched themselves by stealing millions of dollars from a public school system in our southern coalfields during a national emergency. They stole hope from the children of Boone County and did so at the expense of taxpayers throughout West Virginia and our country. This is no longer a negotiable vice in West Virginia – it is a crime we will prosecute without mercy.”
 Capito commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), the West Virginia State Police, and the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office (WVSAO) Public Integrity and Fraud Unit (PIFU), and the assistance provided by the West Virginia Department of Education.
 United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Gabriel Price prosecuted the case.
 A copy of this press release is located on the website of the  U.S. Attorney’s Office  for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on  PACER  by searching for Case No. 2:25-cr-6.

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