Former Business Office Coordinator at Two Area Senior Living Facilities Indicted on Eight Counts of Wire Fraud

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Mia Hardy, 58, of Chester, Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged by indictment with eight counts of wire fraud, arising from an alleged scheme to defraud the residents of two senior living facilities, residents’ heirs, and the facilities themselves.

As detailed in the indictment, Hardy was employed first at Senior Living Facility #1 and later at Senior Living Facility #2, which both used a resident fund management service (“RFMS”) to help manage resident funds. The residents in these facilities often required substantial medical assistance and were extremely vulnerable members of the community.

RFMS was a financial service platform that provided a central resident trust account that allowed residents to easily access their funds. Each resident had an individual, interest-bearing sub-account within the resident trust account. Those funds were then available to the resident for personal spending or bill paying. Residents could obtain funds from the RFMS through checks made payable to payees at the direction of the resident (directly or through the resident’s representative) or through cash withdrawals that the resident needed for minor expenses.

The indictment alleges that, from in or about March 2020 through in or about August 2023, while the defendant was employed as a business office coordinator at Senior Living Facility #1, she exploited the RFMS for her personal benefit on a recurring basis, improperly accessing the RFMS system and issuing checks on resident accounts, making them payable to various family members and associates of hers. Those individual payees were not known to the residents on whose accounts the checks were written, and Hardy allegedly engaged in this activity fraudulently without the knowledge or permission of Senior Living Facility #1 and the affected residents.

At times, Hardy forged the authorized signature on the checks and at other times she improperly, and through misrepresentations to the authorized signer, obtained an authorized signature on the checks. The indictment alleges that in this aspect of the scheme, Hardy generated approximately 49 checks totaling approximately $122,941.

The indictment also alleges that the defendant exploited the RFMS system and the resident accounts in Senior Living Facility #1 to generate petty cash payments for herself, generating additional losses for the residents.

The indictment further alleges that, from in or about April 2024 through in or about July 2024, while Hardy was a business office coordinator for Senior Living Facility #2, she exploited the RFMS for her personal benefit using the same method described above, improperly generating checks on Senior Living Facility #2 resident accounts through the RFMS, and making the checks payable to her family members and associates, who then negotiated the checks for their and Hardy’s benefit. The defendant also improperly obtained a blank personal check on a resident’s personal Capital One bank account and issued it to one of her associates.

The notice of forfeiture included in the indictment seeks forfeiture of up to $366,000 from the defendant for these offenses.

If convicted, on each count of wire fraud, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen.

An indictment, information, or criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.