Hospital Employee Sentenced to 42 Months for Embezzling $1 Million from Beth Israel

BOSTON, MA—A Boston man was sentenced today in federal court to 42 months in prison for embezzling over $1 million from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Warren Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Field Division and Police Commissioner Edward Davis of the Boston Police Department, announced today that RICHARD P. WEBB, 42, of Boston, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro to three-and-a-half years of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Judge Tauro also ordered WEBB to pay $1,054,712.34 in restitution and forfeiture.

On March 3, WEBB pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of health care theft and embezzlement. At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that had the case proceeded to trial, the Government’s evidence would have proven that from January 2006 through April 2009, while WEBB worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston, as a practice assistant in the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department, he stole approximately $1,054,712 by taking checks written to the department and obtaining fraudulent refunds for hearing aids and other items. To carry out the scheme, WEBB forged signatures and deposited stolen funds into bank accounts that he controlled.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Boston Police Department, whose diligence uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars more in theft than the original reports indicated. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott L. Garland and Veronica Lei of Ortiz’s Computer Crime and Asset Forfeiture Units.