Indictment Charges Waterbury Women with Fraud Offenses

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that a federal grand jury in New Haven has returned a 17-count indictment charging MARLENIN VITO, 45, of Waterbury, with fraud offenses.

The indictment was returned on October 22, 2024.  Vito appeared yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector in New Haven, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $25,000 bond.

As alleged in the indictment, from approximately 2018 to May 2021, Vito was employed as Medicaid Coordinator at an assisted living facility located in Stamford, referred to in the indictment as “Company A.”  Vito’s responsibilities included assisting the residents in applying for nursing home level Medicaid reimbursements, monitoring the residents’ patient trust accounts, and ensuring compliance with Medicaid regulations.  She was also responsible for keeping journal entries for the residents’ trust accounts and to credit their accounts when funds were received, and for debiting patient accounts when payments were made on behalf of the residents or when cash was given to residents for incidental expenses.

It is alleged that, between approximately December 2019 and May 2021, Vito defrauded Company A and its residents by generating checks from Company A’s system, forging a fellow employee’s signature on the checks, negotiating the fraudulent checks purportedly to give the cash proceeds to certain residents, and keeping the cash for her own use.  Vito then made false entries into Company A’s accounting ledger by debiting the fraudulently obtained cash from the residents’ respective trust accounts.  Many of the residents were not healthy enough or mentally capable of tracking their own expenses or monitoring the balances of their own trust accounts.

It is further alleged, in certain instances, Vito cancelled residents’ supplemental health insurance coverage, but continued to deduct funds from the trust accounts and took the funds for herself.  Also, when certain residents’ trust accounts were credited with Economic Impact Payments (“COVID-19 stimulus payments”), Vito took the funds for herself and then debited the residents’ accounts at a rate of approximately $60 a day until the stimulus funds were depleted.

It is alleged that during the scheme, Vito fraudulently negotiated approximately 500 checks.  When she was confronted by family members of certain residents, Vito created and provided to those family members false account statements that misrepresented the balances in the residents’ trust accounts.

The indictment also alleges that, between approximately May and July 2023, Vito was employed as a bookkeeper at a law firm in Hartford, referred to in the indictment as “Company B.”  Vito took fraudulently generated checks drawn on Company B’s bank account and issued as “Pay to the Order of ‘Petty Cash, ’” forged the signature of an authorized employee on the checks, cashed the checks, and kept the funds for herself.  She then recorded the fraudulently negotiated checks in Company B’s books and records as “Petty Cash.”

It is alleged that Vito stole a total of more than $200,000 through these schemes.

The indictment charges Vito with five counts of wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count, and 12 counts of bank fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years on each count.

U.S. Attorney Avery stressed that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This investigation is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of the Stamford Police Department and Hartford Police Department.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. McGarry.