Financial Fraud: Renee Tartaglione Sentenced For 53 Counts Of Conspiracy, Fraud, Theft And Tax Crimes

<h2>Former Head of Nonprofit Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding Mental Health Clinic Out of Over &dollar;2 Million<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>A former head of a Philadelphia nonprofit mental health clinic was sentenced to 82 months in prison for perpetrating a multiyear fraud scheme through which she stole over &dollar;2 million from the clinic that she headed&comma; announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John P&period; Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U&period;S&period; Attorney William M&period; McSwain for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>On June 23&comma; 2017&comma; a jury found Renee Tartaglione&comma; 62&comma; of Philadelphia&comma; Pennsylvania&comma; guilty of 53 counts of conspiracy&comma; fraud&comma; theft and tax crimes&period; Today&comma; U&period;S&period; District Court Judge Joel H&period; Slomsky sentenced Tartaglione to serve 82 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release&period; In addition&comma; Judge Slomsky ordered Tartaglione to forfeit &dollar;2&comma;401&comma;850 in proceeds from her scheme and to pay &dollar;2&comma;339&comma;691 in restitution to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office&comma; which will hold that money in trust until a successor charitable organization can be identified&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Renee Tartaglione abused her position at a community clinic and stole over &dollar;2 million from important taxpayer-funded programs for individuals in need of mental health treatment&comma;” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Her conviction and sentence should send a clear message that the Department of Justice and our federal and state partners will aggressively work to bring to justice those who defraud institutions devoted to serving individuals in need&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The defendant funneled millions of dollars&comma; meant to help economically disadvantaged people with mental health issues&comma; into her own pockets to finance her comfortable lifestyle&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney McSwain&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Today’s sentence reinforces the basic precept that nonprofit organizations – especially those that provide important services to the disadvantaged – exist for the people they serve and not for the personal enrichment of their leaders&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the evidence presented at trial&comma; between 2007 and 2015&comma; Tartaglione&comma; as President of the Board of Directors of the Juniata Community Mental Health Clinic &lpar;JCMHC&rpar;&comma; defrauded and stole money from JCMHC through a series of actions designed to benefit her personally at the expense of the clinic&period; Tartaglione purchased a building on 3rd Street in Philadelphia that housed the clinic and then raised the rent repeatedly&comma; causing the clinic’s rent to increase from &dollar;4&comma;500 per month to &dollar;25&comma;000 per month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Additionally&comma; in 2010&comma; Tartaglione’s company&comma; Norris Hancock LLC&comma; acquired an interest in a building on 5th Street&comma; and Tartaglione began causing the clinic to spend money to improve that building&period; In December 2012&comma; Tartaglione leased the 5th Street building to JCMHC for &dollar;35&comma;000 per month for the first two years&comma; and &dollar;75&comma;000 per month for the next three years&period; The rent Tartaglione charged the nonprofit clinic at both buildings was substantially higher than market rates&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>None of the JCMHC rent increases or the lease agreements were approved by JCMHC’s Board of Directors&period; The evidence further showed that Tartaglione and her co-conspirators created false and fictitious documents in an attempt to make the transactions appear legitimate&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This case was investigated by the FBI&comma; IRS Criminal Investigation&comma; and the Philadelphia Office of the Inspector General&period; The case was prosecuted by Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Bea Witzleben of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Trial Attorney Peter N&period; Halpern of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;former-head-nonprofit-sentenced-prison-defrauding-mental-health-clinic-out-over-2-million">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

FraudTax FraudTheft