Marietta man sentenced for fraud schemes netting $7.2 million

MARIETTA - A Marietta man was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison Friday for cheating the government, MCI and other telephone companies out of $7.2 million. <br> <br> Harold Mann, 40, pleaded guilty Oct. 19 to money money laundering, wire fraud and income tax fraud. <br> <br> In one scheme between 1995 and 1999, Mann and his co-conspirators defrauded companies that resold MCI long-distance services, prosecutors said. <br> <br> The companies were told they could finance their debts to MCI through shell corporations controlled by Mann, which would eliminate the debts without MCI terminating services. Instead, the government said, the money was diverted to personal use. <br> <br> Walter A. Pavlo Jr., who is serving three years and five months in prison for his part in the scheme, was a senior manager at MCI who worked with co-conspirators to make it appear the debts had been paid in full. <br> <br> Mann also was sentenced to filing a false income tax return for 1997, cheating the Internal Revenue Service of $1.4 million.