Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters announced today that the former business office manager for an area nursing home has been sentenced to prison after an investigation found that he stole money from more than 100 residents over a period of several years.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Charles Kubicki sentenced Brian Frawley, 42, of Covington, Kentucky, to four years in prison.
Frawley, who was previously employed as the business office manager for Clifton Care Center, pleaded guilty in April to a charge of theft from a person in a protected class, a felony of the first degree.
Agents with the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit found that Frawley stole more than $173,000 from more than 150 elderly and/or disabled Clifton Care Center residents between December 1, 2008 and March 31, 2013. The investigation found that Frawley stole cash from resident trust fund accounts and made false entries in trust fund ledgers in an attempt to cover up the theft.
“The victims in this case trusted the defendant to manage their resident trust funds, but he abused that trust to fill his own pockets,” said Attorney General DeWine. “The money he stole should have been used toward the wellbeing of each resident, but the defendant instead spent it on himself.”
Frawley was also ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution. The remaining losses were covered by insurance.
The case was prosecuted by attorneys with the office of Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters.
Anyone who suspects Medicaid fraud or patient neglect, abuse, or exploitation should contact Attorney General DeWine’s Office at 800-282-0515. The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit enforces Ohio’s Patient Abuse and Neglect Law, which protects the mentally and physically disabled and the elderly from neglect, abuse, and exploitation in Ohio’s long-term care facilities.