School district employee steals millions in WV for home improvements, feds say
A West Virginia man pleaded guilty to stealing more than $3.4 million from a school district where he was employed as a maintenance director, federal prosecutors said.
Michael Barker, 47, admitted to working with a business owner starting in November 2019 to overcharge the school district for custodial supplies and split the excess funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia said in an April 7 news release.
“(Barker’s) actions caused serious reputable harm and diminished the trust in the Boone County School system,” Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston said in the release.
McClatchy News reached out to Barker’s attorney April 8 but did not receive an immediate response.
Fraud scheme
Barker worked as the maintenance director for Boone County Schools in Madison between November 2019 and December 2023, according to the plea agreement. In this role, he was responsible for making sure schools were stocked with supplies, including hand soap, trash can liners and hand sanitizer.
However, in November 2019, Barker made an agreement with the owner of Rush Enterprises — the company Baker would purchase supplies from — to invoice the district for products that were never delivered, prosecutors said.
Barker and the business owner — who pleaded guilty in February on charges in a separate indictment — agreed to deduct the true cost of the supplies from the fraudulent invoices and split the rest between them, according to the indictment. To do so, the business owner would deposit the checks from the school district into his business account then deliver cash payments to Barker, prosecutors said.
School district losses
Between 2022 and 2023, the school district paid for $474,696 in hand soap that was never received, according to an indictment. In total, the school paid more than $4 million in products from Rush Enterprises, prosecutors said.
In the plea agreement, Barker said about 80% of the total payments were fraudulent.
“I used the cash payments to purchase vehicles, equipment, and make substantial improvements to my residence,” Barker said in the plea agreement.
Barker is set to be sentenced July 31 and faces up to 20 years in prison with up to three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, prosecutors said. He’s agreed to sell his house in order to help pay part of the $3.4 million he owes in restitution, according to the plea agreement.
“Boone County Schools is thankful for the U.S. Attorney General’s efforts in ensuring that former employee David Barker, and all other criminals involved, are held accountable for their illegal actions of siphoning public dollars away from the school system,” Matt Riggs, Boone County Schools superintendent, told McClatchy News in an April 9 email.
Madison is about a 250-mile drive east from Louisville, Kentucky.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 10:14 AM with the headline "School district employee steals millions in WV for home improvements, feds say."
