by
Astrid Fiano, DOTmed News Writer | August 23, 2010
This report originally appeared in the July 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News
Attorney General Greg Zoeller announced that the owner of a chain of group homes for developmentally disabled residents has been sentenced to two years in prison, following a conviction for theft of approximately $75,000 in patient trust funds. The AG's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated the case against owner Ernest M. Beal Jr.
Beal was CEO of Your Friends & Neighbors, which operates group homes for the developmentally disabled in Indiana and Georgia. The fraud unit investigated allegations of Beal taking from the trust funds of around 150 residents and using the money for payroll, including for himself. Beal claimed to investigators that the funds taken were a "loan," and that he had repaid part of the money. After investigation, the theft charge was filed against Beal in 2009.
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"Families of developmentally disabled patients put their trust in this individual, and he repaid their trust by pocketing their money. These were funds the families and the patients had set aside for personal expenses to provide for a good quality of life," Zoeller said in a press release. "To steal from the developmentally disabled and call it a 'loan' is the height of cynicism and deserves prison time."
