Warrant Issued for Employee of Pottsville Business Accused of Stealing Nearly $190K

An arrest warrant has been issued for a St. Clair man accused of stealing nearly $190,000 from a business in Pottsville.

According to court papers obtained by The Canary, Mark D. Hall Jr. is wanted on felony charges of:

• Theft by deception
• Receiving stolen property
• Theft by unlawful taking
• Theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received
• Criminal use of a communication facility

Police: Employee Sent Fraudulent Refunds to His Own Paypal Accounts

Pottsville Police say they received a call from Bob Weaver Auto, on W. Market St., about a case of suspected fraud.

There, owner Bob Weaver and an employee, Jacob Weaver, told police that they do a lot of business online and use Paypal to make and receive payments and issue refunds for those transactions.

The Weavers explained that they uncovered more than $180,000 in suspected fraudulent refunds transacted through the company’s Paypal account, to which several employees have access.

Police were given records of transactions made through Weaver’s Paypal account and also records of the suspected fraudulent refunds that were sent from their account to two emails in particular.

The suspected fraudulent transactions happened between Nov. 14, 2022, and Jan. 23, 2024. A total of 129 suspected fraudulent transactions happened during that time, police say after an initial examination of those records. All those suspected fraudulent transactions add up to $180,386.65.

During the course of the investigation, Pottsville Det. Joseph Krammes says in court documents that he uncovered more potentially fraudulent transactions. He says this suspected fake person was sent $8,288.45. This person was allegedly only ever sent money and never paid any money, according to the records Krammes reviewed.

Those 13 extra transactions went to a person named purportedly named Luke Williams.

After securing a subpoena, Krammes said he uncovered two more suspected fraudulent transactions, making that total $9,522.71.

Krammes says he subpoenaed records through Paypal on all three suspect emails. All three emails used to create accounts on Paypal connected to one phone number, bank, and bank account number, he says in the affidavit.

The phone number associated with those Paypal accounts all allegedly connected back to Hall and it’s the same number Weaver had on file for him in his employee records, court papers note. The bank account info is allegedly the same as that of the account to which Hall had his paychecks deposited directly.

Hall allegedly took the money from those Paypal accounts and deposited them into his bank account. A subsequent subpoena for Hall’s bank records allegedly turns up deposit matches for the transactions conducted on Paypal, Krammes states.

The warrant for Hall’s arrest was signed by District Magistrate Jimmy Reiley on May 31.