A penny-meltdown moneymaking plan is at the heart of a federal lawsuit that pits the Brinks Co. against its former internal auditor.

Brian D. Holbrook, the auditor, charges in his whistleblower lawsuit that Brinks defrauded the United States by allowing a Jackson County metallurgist to sort through pennies that Brinks kept for the Federal Reserve, take the coins that contained more copper, and replace them with those that had less.

The lawsuit, filed two years ago in New Jersey against Brinks, Jackson Metals and metallurgist Walter Luhrman, was moved recently to U.S. District Court in Columbus at the request of the defendants.

Although most of those involved in the lawsuit would not discuss the case on the record, court documents give details.

Holbrook's complaint says that Luhrman, of Jackson, had an agreement with Brinks that allowed him to cull pennies minted in 1982 and earlier from coin piles that Brinks kept for the Federal Reserve in 2006 and 2007. Luhrman melted the pre-1983 pennies, which were minted with 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc, to extract the copper, the complaint says. He replaced those pennies with newer ones, which are 2.5 percent copper and 97.5 percent zinc.

In the lawsuit, Holbrook, of Parma Heights in Cuyahoga County, estimated that Luhrman received $44,892 for each tractor-trailer of pennies he obtained from Brinks. A total was not listed in the documents.

Luhrman profited, the complaint says, because the copper in each penny was worth about 2 cents. Brinks saved money because Luhrman's company, Jackson Metals, moved the pennies from Brinks' customers with an excess of the coins to places with a shortage, cutting transportation costs for Brinks, according to the complaint.

In its answer to the court, Brinks does not say whether the allegation of penny-switching is true.

To read the complete article, see:Ex-auditor's lawsuit alleges Brinks' coin-culling deal was fraud(www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/11/18/ex-auditors-lawsuit-alleges-brinks-coin-culling-deal-was-fraud.html)