Delco Woman Stole From Seniors In Living Facilities, Their Heirs: AG

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — A Delaware County woman who worked at two senior living facilities in the area has been accused of defrauding some residents, their heirs, and the facilities themselves.

United States Attorney David Metcalf said Mia Hardy, 58, of Chester, was arrested and charged by indictment with eight counts of wire fraud.

According to authorities, Hardy was employed worked at one area senior living facility, then another. Both used a resident fund management service, known as RFMS, to help manage resident funds. The residents in these facilities often required substantial medical assistance and were extremely vulnerable members of the community.

Authorities said RFMS was a financial service platform that provided a central resident trust account that allowed residents to easily access their funds.

Each resident had an individual, interest-bearing subaccount within the resident trust account. Those funds were then available to the resident for personal spending or bill paying. Residents could obtain funds from the RFMS through checks made payable to payees at the direction of the resident, either directly or through the resident’s representative, or through cash withdrawals that the resident needed for minor expenses.

From roughly March 2020 through about August 2023, while Hardy was employed as a business office coordinator at the first facility, she exploited the RFMS for her personal benefit on a recurring basis.

Authorities claim she accessed the RFMS system and issuing checks on resident accounts, making them payable to various family members and associates of hers.

Those individual payees were not known to the residents on whose accounts the checks were written, and Hardy allegedly engaged in this activity fraudulently without the knowledge or permission of the facility and the affected residents, according to authorities.

Authorities also said Hardy forged the authorized signature on the checks and at other times she improperly, and through misrepresentations to the authorized signer, obtained an authorized signature on the checks.

The indictment alleges that in this aspect of the scheme, Hardy generated about 49 checks totaling about $122,941.

Additionally, she is accused of exploiting the RFMS system and the resident accounts to generate petty cash payments for herself, generating additional losses for the residents.

While employed at the other facility, authorities said Hardy, in her role as the facility's business officer coordinator, from about April 2024 through about July 2024 exploited the RFMS for her personal benefit using the same method described above, improperly generating checks on resident accounts through the RFMS, and making the checks payable to her family members and associates, who then negotiated the checks for their and Hardy’s benefit.

She also improperly obtained a blank personal check on a resident’s personal Capital One bank account and issued it to one of her associates, authorities said.

The notice of forfeiture included in the indictment seeks forfeiture of up to $366,000 from Hardy for these offenses.

If convicted, on each count of wire fraud, Hardy faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.