Feds: Woman Embezzled $150,000 From Nursing Home Patients

NEW HAVEN, CT—Now released on a $200,000 bond, a 34-year-old North Branford woman was arrested Tuesday on multiple embezzlement, fraud and identity theft charges, federal prosecutors said.

Melissa Meole, who appeared in federal court in New Haven, is facing decades in prison if convicted of embezzling $150,000 from nursing home patients' trust accounts, nearly $30,000 in payroll check theft and around $9,000 via a "check-kiting scheme," according to a statement from United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut John H. Durham.

According to the federal complaint, Meole worked in the business office and payroll department for a Bridgeport health care company that had two nursing and rehab centers. Her job, the complaint says, was to process payroll and "handle" the resident trust accounts of patients at Bridgeport Manor. Federal prosecutors say between approximately January 2018 and October 2018, "Meole embezzled approximately $150,000 from the BHCC and Bridgeport Manor resident trust accounts."

The complaint also alleges that Meole "stole more than $29,000 from BHCC-INC in the form of payroll checks, which she deposited into her personal bank account."

And, federal prosecutors allege that after she was fired in October of 2018, "Meole defrauded another employer of more than $9,000, and she defrauded multiple banks in an identity theft and check kiting scheme."

On her Facebook page Meole says she's from East Haven and studied at Gateway Community College and Southern Connecticut State University.

The charges against her can result in decades in prison.

The "theft or embezzlement in connection with health care," charge has a maximum 10 years; health care fraud, also 10 years, wire fraud, carries a maximum 20 years; bank fraud, carries a maximum 30 years; and aggravated identity theft, which is another two years.

The U.S. Attorney "stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case is being investigated by many federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor's offices of Inspector General and Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David E. Novick and Neeraj N. Patel are prosecuting.