Being a parent is stressful enough; imagine finding out that you unwittingly left your kids in the care of a federal convict? Philly.com has the story of a middle-aged Philadelphia man who failed to include evidence of his criminal record when he applied for state licenses to run three different daycare facilities.
According to the report, this isn’t just a case of someone accidentally “forgetting” about their extensive criminal record. (As if that even happens.) This guy didn’t just fail to disclose evidence of his federal conviction for dealing narcotics and other crimes, which is required for any person applying for a childcare license. He went so far as to actually falsify his FBI and his Pennsylvania State background checks, and then included the fraudulent records in his applications for childcare licenses. (I wonder if he also cheats when playing hide and seek with the kids.)
By the time investigators discovered that the man had fraudulently obtained his licenses, he already had opened three daycare centers and collected more than $9 million in state-sponsored payments related to public childcare benefits, which he mainly used to keep the centers afloat. (Yes, these facilities are no longer in existence.)
Ultimately, he pleaded guilty to welfare fraud, forgery and related offenses and was sentenced to up to 23 months in jail. Following his release, he will be on probation for a whopping 20 years. He also was ordered to pay restitution of $900,000, the salary amount he had paid himself over a four-year period. (The most shocking part of the story might be that parents of children who attended the centers were among his courtroom supporters.)
This man exhibited a blatant disregard for parents’ rights to make informed decisions about care options for their minor children, along with a willingness to lie and to fraudulently solicit and accept public money. Luckily, the state of Pennsylvania caught this crook before something terrible happened
The post The Convict That Rocks the Cradle appeared first on Fraud of the Day.
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