08/31/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, USA // Tara Monks // Tara Monks
Danbury, CT – The former senior vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer of Danbury Hospital, William Roe, was arrested Tuesday, August 17, 2010, on charges of wire fraud and interstate transport of stolen fund charges. He is now headed to federal court to face the charges, as well as additional accusations of witness tampering, obstruction of justice and second-degree harassment, as reported by News Times. He is accused of defrauding the hospital of over $100,000.
The later three charges came after his arrest, because he allegedly tried to call and e-mail Danbury Hospital President and CEO Dr. John Murphy in hopes of keeping his job.
According to court documents, Roe was ordered to stay away from the hospital and not to contact anyone affiliated with the organization. He ignored the orders, calling Murphy almost hourly on his cell phone, asking to discuss the case. Murphy changed his phone number in order to avoid the harassment.
Roe began his employment with Danbury Hospital in March 2009. He is accused of tampering with the appraisal of his former home in Lima, Ohio, to increase his compensation from the hospital over its sale. The hospital agreed to pay the difference between the appraised value and actual sale price of Roe’s home. Roe fraudulently inflated the value of the home appraisal by approximately $70,000, according to FBI documents.
After this, Roe continued to defraud the company. The FBI affidavit that accompanied Roe’s arrest said he signed two checks, one on June 25, 2009 and another on January 13, 2010, which approved the transfer of money from Danbury Health Systems to Cycle Software Solutions. Danbury Health Systems is the hospital’s parent company and Cycle Software Solutions, located in Jessup, Pennsylvania, is a private firm owned by Roe.
Each check amount was $45,000.
Roe allegedly signed the checks and took them to Pennsylvania to deposit them.
He attempted to issue a third check for $25,000 using the same scheme, but the hospital put a stop payment on it after a review showed several irregularities with the check.
Hospital spokeswoman Andrea Rynn said Monday, August 30, 2010, “Through our own due diligence, the hospital discovered several apparent financial irregularities.” She went on, stating, “After sharing this information with federal law enforcement officials, we have been informed that our former CFO, William Roe, is under investigation.”
The hospital is cooperating with authorities. Rynn would not state whether Roe was fired, nor would she elaborate on the official hospital statement.
Roe reportedly earned $276,990 in salary and $41,038 in benefits during the 2009 fiscal year. He was the ninth highest paid official at Danbury Hospital.
Roe is scheduled to appear in federal court in Bridgeport on September 7.
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