Home Depot $500,000 fraud leads to conviction of Honduran man in U.S.

A federal court in the United States has sentenced Darwin Alberto Corea Calderón, a 34-year-old Honduran citizen, to two years in prison for his role in a conspiracy that cost Home Depot more than $464,000. The fraudulent operations took place between 2022 and 2025 across stores in North and South Carolina.

The investigation revealed that the scheme involved processing unsupported product returns to obtain refunds. According to prosecutors, these fraudulent transactions were conducted repeatedly over approximately three years, accumulating to a total loss exceeding $464,000 for Home Depot. The fraud also employed a technique known as "skip-scanning," where items were deliberately not scanned at self-checkout registers.

Court documents indicate that the scheme spanned more than a dozen Home Depot locations. Corea Calderón pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In addition to his two-year federal prison sentence, he will be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for further immigration proceedings upon his release.

Federal prosecutor Russ Ferguson stated that such crimes impact businesses and consumers economically. He characterized Corea's actions as driven by greed rather than necessity, describing it as a premeditated plan that would have continued without federal intervention. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Bozin, with investigations led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

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The crimes of Corea were born of greed, not of necessity. It was a premeditated plan that he repeated over and over, and that he would continue to repeat until federal authorities put an end to it.