2 Frankfort Women Indicted In $3.2M Childcare Funds Scam: Feds

FRANKFORT, IL — Two Frankfort women are among 15 people who were indicted on federal charges on Thursday, claiming that the group fraudulently obtained $3.2 million in state funding designed to be used for childcare services.

Marissa Terry, 36, and Joi Sanderson, 49 — both of Frankfort – were among those indicted on Thursday by federal prosecutors who allege that the group was part of a fraud scheme orchestrated by a Chicago woman between 2016 and 2022, court documents show.

The indictment, which was unsealed Thursday, claims that Shauntele T. Pridgeon orchestrated the scheme while she was serving as the Community Social Service Planner for the Department of Child and Family Services in Chicago. Prosecutors said that Pridgeon fraudulently entered the information of several of her co-defendants into the DCFS computer system and approved them to be paid as providers caring for foster children, the indictment states.

Pridgeon directed at least $3.2 million in state funds to the co-defendants and others — each of whom agreed to receive the money even though they knew that no foster children were actually in their care, according to court documents. The co-defendants and others then paid bribes and kickbacks to Pridgeon totaling approximately $1.6 million, prosecutors allege.

Pridgeon allegedly used the bribe money to pay personal expenses, including gambling losses at a casino in Hammond, Ind.

The indictment accuses each of Pridgeon’s co-defendants of accepting various amounts of state money for the nonexistent childcare services. Most of the defendants were arrested Wednesday and have begun making initial appearances in federal court in Chicago.