Ohio man pleads guilty to defrauding local governments

Alexandria, Va. – An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $750,000 from state and local governments by submitting phony invoices to them.

Fifty-nine-year-old Robert Mutua Muli of Carrollton, Ohio, struck a plea bargain Monday with federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia. Under the plea deal, Muli admitted that he conspired to commit wire fraud against four separate state and local governments. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in October.

According to court documents, Muli would submit phony invoices to the governments’ finance departments. The invoices were made to resemble legitimate bills from vendors like Dell Computers.

The biggest victim was an unidentified local government in Virginia, which lost more than $610,000. The city of Detroit lost more than $130,000 and the state of Vermont lost $3,900.