Woman arrested, accused of stealing over $1 million from Wheaton Franciscan

GLENDALE (WITI) -- Glendale police on Thursday, August 1st, arrested a 49-year-old woman in connection with a large internal theft of Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare. According to police, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare financial records indicate that the theft may exceed $1 million.

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has released the following statement to FOX6 News:

"Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare’s Finance Department discovered an irregularity in our payroll deposits that pointed to potential theft by a Wheaton associate. We believe that the situation was limited to a single associate who has admitted to the theft. The individual’s employment with Wheaton has since been terminated.

We have turned the matter over to the Glendale Police Department and will fully cooperate with the investigation. Following the completion of the police investigation, we anticipate that the case will go to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office where formal charges will be considered.

Our investigation determined that a sophisticated process was used to add false hours– mostly Paid Time Off (PTO) hours – to the accounts of random associates, make an immediate payout into her personal bank account for the value of that extra PTO, and then delete the record so that it would not be detected. The payroll accounts of 848 current and former associates were manipulated, though no pay or PTO hours were stolen from the individuals.

Although the amount of the theft is still under investigation, the estimated impact to the Wheaton system was an average of $108,000 per year over multiple years for a total of $1.1 million.

While the majority of the impact fell on the Wheaton organization, there may also be a potential small tax impact for hundreds of associates whose pay was inflated. As an organization, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare is committed to ensuring that the affected current and former associates do not experience negative financial consequences as a result of this situation. Letters to those affected are in the mail with information on the steps that they will need to take to be compensated for any negative tax implications. We regret that this theft occurred and are doing what we can to minimize the inconvenience to those affected.

We take the integrity of our payroll and other systems very seriously and have already corrected the internal control breakdown that the Payroll Specialist exploited to ensure that this type of situation cannot happen in the future. In addition, we have conducted a full review of internal payroll controls with the support of CHAN and KPMG, our internal and external auditors. This review determined that our current internal controls are strong and effective.

We are disappointed by this breach of trust and appreciate the patience and understanding of those affected. We would also like to thank the Glendale Police Department for its upcoming work on this investigation."

This case is set to be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office for charges.