PROVIDENCE – A New Bedford man was sentenced to almost three years in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution for embezzling more than $1 million from a Warwick supplier of precision tubing and fabricated metal components, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Attorney Zachary A. Cunha announced on Monday.
Juan Hicks, 47, a former IT director of ATW Companies, must spend 33 months in federal prison, followed by three years of federal supervised release and pay $1.04 million in restitution.
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Hicks had pled guilty in March to a charge of wire fraud and admitted that he defrauded his former employer in several ways including by: creating false invoices and expense reports for purchases that were never made; altering legitimate credit card statements to make personal purchases appear to be business expenses; issuing company phones to himself and six family member and enrolling those phones on the company’s wireless service plan; submitting invoices and using company credit cards to buy airline and entertainment tickets as well as make purchases at retail stores and auto repair centers, according to Cunha’s office.
Hick’s crimes were revealed in March 2022 when ATW Companies hired forensic analysts to investigate the source of a cyberattack and identify vulnerabilities in the computer system. Hicks violated company policy by refusing to provide his computer and passwords at the time, according to company officials.
Aided by information from the company, an investigation conducted by the Warwick Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and The U.S. Attorney’s Office showed Hicks had embezzled over $1 million from the company since 2012.
