A Honduran national was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for his role in a refund scheme involving Home Depot stores in Statesville, Charlotte, Cornelius, Gastonia, Kannapolis and Matthews, as well as stores in South Carolina.
Darwin Alberto Corea Calderon, 34, will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for deportation after he completes his sentence, said Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
“Those who defraud retailers make prices higher for all of us,” Ferguson said. “Corea’s crimes were born out of greed, not necessity. This was a calculated scheme that he repeated over and over, and would continue to repeat, until federal law enforcement brought it to an end.”
According to court records, from 2022 to 2025, Corea conspired to conduct an extensive refund scheme against The Home Depot that caused the retailer to issue hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent refunds. Corea targeted more than a dozen Home Depot stores in the region. In total, the scheme defrauded The Home Depot of more than $464,000. In addition to the refund scheme, Corea also committed theft by engaging in a skip-scanning scheme, in which he purposely failed to scan products at Home Depot’s self-checkout registers and walked out with them.
During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors also presented evidence of Corea’s 2024 state felony larceny conviction in Cabarrus County for stealing power tools, a vacuum, and a microwave from Lowe’s Home Improvement.
Corea previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals until he is transferred to a federal facility upon placement by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
U.S. Attorney Ferguson commended Homeland Security Investigations for the investigation of the case and thanked The Home Depot for its invaluable assistance throughout the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Bozin with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.