DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (TND) — The former director of a hospital outside Philadelphia has been charged with embezzling more than $600,000 from a hospital charitable account.
Norma Galagarza, 68, was director of medical staff for Doylestown Hospital until she retired in March 2021.
According to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, part of her job was to oversee an account set up by the Medical Executive Committee for employees to make charitable donations.
Sometime around 2007, the Medical Executive Committee stopped getting monthly statements and the account eventually went dormant — or so they thought.
The investigation started in January 2022, less than a year after Galagarza’s retirement, when the hospital’s board of directors started getting insufficient funds charges on the account they didn’t realize was open.
The D.A.’s office said hospital personnel found unauthorized account activity including withdrawals and deposits totaling more than $55,000 from October 2020 to December 2021.
They also learned the account’s mailing address was changed from the hospital to Galagarza's home.
Detectives got search warrants and found between 2008 and 2021, Galagarza made 896 unauthorized transactions totaling $604,702.29.
They said she used the money to pay her personal taxes, real estate taxes, cell phone bills, car payments, and personal credit accounts.
Galagarza was charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, knowledge that property is proceeds of illegal activity, forgery, access device fraud, and computer trespass. She was released in lieu of $250,000 bail.
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