Former Business Manager Sentenced for Embezzling $170,000 from Brookside Physician's Office

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the former business manager for a Brookside physician’s office was sentenced in federal court today for a fraud scheme in which she embezzled $170,000 from her employer.

Eileen Kisner, also known as “Anne,” 57, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to two years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Kisner to pay $170,232 in restitution.

On November 20, 2013, Kisner pleaded guilty to mail fraud. Kisner was the business manager at Brookside Family Medicine from 2002 to 2010. During that time, she used her employer’s credit cards for her personal use and benefit when she was not authorized to do so. Kisner stole approximately $170,232 from Brookside over eight years. Kisner created fraudulent entries in the business ledger to provide to the company’s accountant to avoid detection of her embezzlement.

As a result her crimes, Dr. Darren Killen had to declare bankruptcy and sell his business. Shortly after she was fired from her position at Brookside, Kisner left the United States and went to Europe for almost three years (during which she worked as a nanny in the Netherlands for six months and then went to work for LED in the Netherlands). She was arrested as she deplaned in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 15, 2013, having been detected by the Transportation and Safety Administration (TSA) in a records comparison check between Europe and the United States while her plane was in flight.

According to court documents, Kisner charged items at Southwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Tan World, Halls, Nordstroms, Ann Taylor, Price Chopper, TJ Maxx, Costco, Talbot’s, and Pottery Barn. In addition, she charged items at Home Depot, Target, Woodland Shutters (over $4,000), Z Gallerie, Walmart, and Polo/Ralph Lauren. The balances on the credit cards were paid by funds from the company’s bank account. Kisner also paid for personal expenses by mailing checks to American Family Insurance (car insurance), GMAC (Hummer car payments), and Visa from Brookside’s bank account for her own personal use and benefit.

Kisner applied for at least two credit cards for Brookside, according to court documents, which she had issued in her husband’s name. Those credit cards were used to pay her husband’s personal expenses. Kisner also paid for her home gas bill several times with Brookside money. Kisner did so by having her personal address listed with Brookside’s name above the address. Kisner would then attach her personal gas bill to Brookside’s gas bill and pay both bills with one of Brookside’s checks.

Kisner pleaded guilty to a mail fraud count that charges her with mailing a $224 check from the company’s account to pay for her personal car insurance on a family car, a Sierra. Kisner was not authorized to pay funds from Brookside’s bank account for the car insurance.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown. It was investigated by the FBI.