PORTLAND, Maine — A former Portland police officer who in 2015 pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 from a police credit union has been sentenced in federal court to a year and a day in prison and ordered to repay the entire sum.
John Barry, 69, who was a police officer for many years before moving to manage the Portland Police Department FCU, admitted to embezzling $533,791 between 2009 and 2013 and funneling the money to his family members and into his own account. In the process, Barry also falsified financial records to cover the theft, prosecutors said.
The embezzlement gutted the credit union, which had assets of approximately $800,000 during the embezzlement period, and it had to be merged.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark said Barry earned $114,000 each year when he was working for the credit union and urged “the court to send this banker to jail.”
Sentencing guidelines for Barry, a first-time offender, would suggest a punishment of 46 to 57 months, but Barry’s attorneys have requested a more lenient sentence of house arrest, saying that their client is too ill to serve time in prison. Barry has sold his home to help pay restitution and his wife told the court they are now living in a “retirement trailer.”