An Alabama man and enlisted Army Reservist pleaded guilty this week to stealing more than $53,000 from the Department of Defense, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Department of Army Criminal Investigation Division, Redstone Resident Unit, Supervisory Special Agent Chase Wilkerson.

Jared Romine Barton, 39, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Annemarie Carney Axon to one count of theft of government funds.

According to the plea agreement, between 2016 and 2020, while both an active Army Reservist and Army civilian employee at the Army Reserve’s Deployment Support Command in Birmingham, AL, Sergeant First Class Barton submitted false travel claims and associated timecards to be reimbursed for official travel he did not undertake.

“The defendant defrauded the Department of Defense while wearing the uniform of the country,” said Escalona. “My office is committed to investigating and prosecuting white-collar crime in all its forms, but it is particularly insidious that a member of the United States Armed Forces would steal from the government he was sworn to defend.”

“The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division is committed to ensuring that these types of schemes are investigated aggressively,” said Supervisory Special Agent Chase D. Wilkerson of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Redstone Resident Unit. “It is imperative that we continue to pursue economic fraud in every form to protect our military.”

Barton faces a maximum term of up to ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000.