Manager of Chatham County company charged with skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars from employer with fake invoices

SAVANNAH, GA: The manager of a Chatham County company has been charged in a newly unsealed indictment with creating fraudulent invoices for fake vendors to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from a building materials company.

John Laakso, a/k/a "John Larson, a/k/a "John Trebesch," 56, of Sarasota, Florida, is charged in a federal indictment with four counts of Wire Fraud, said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. Conviction on each charge would subject Laakso to a statutory penalty of up to 20 years in prison, along with substantial fines and restitution, and a period of supervised release upon completion of any prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

"This indictment alleges a scheme in which an employee betrayed the trust of an employer for self-enrichment at the employer's expense," said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. "We commend the work of our law enforcement partners in unraveling this fraudulent operation."

As described in the indictment, Laakso worked as a contractor, and later as engineering manager, with GAF Materials Corporation. One of his duties was to procure equipment and services for the GAF facility in Savannah.

The indictment alleges that from 2021 to 2023, Laakso "assumed fictitious personas and created pass-through companies, hiding these activities from GAF." He would award contracts to those fictitious companies which, in turn, would subcontract with an actual vendor to provide the product or service at a lower cost. Laakso would then keep the difference in price "for his own use and enjoyment."

The scheme resulted in GAF paying more than $1.3 million in fraudulent invoices, with Laakso keeping hundreds of thousands for himself from the marked-up costs.

Criminal indictments contain only charges; defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by the FBI, and is prosecuted for the United States of America by Southern District of Georgia Assistant U.S. Attorneys Darron J. Hubbard and Bradford C. Patrick.