The former owner of a Richmond, Virginia, assisted living facility pleaded guilty to health care fraud after spending more than $800,000 meant for residents’ care on travel, gambling expenses and personal debts, federal prosecutors said.
Mable Jones owned and operated Jones & Jones, an assisted living facility for elderly and incapacitated adults, according to court documents. As a representative payee for residents who were legally incapable of managing their own funds, she regularly received state and federal benefit payments on their behalf.
Between December 2015 and the spring of 2019, when the facility closed, Jones spent more than $800,000 of residents’ benefits on herself, leading to deficiencies that endangered residents’ health and safety, court documents state. These conditions prompted state and federal audits and during those audits Jones made false statements, prosecutors said.
“While the vulnerable residents of her facility suffered through dreadful living conditions, the defendant selfishly used their benefits to pay for her own debts, travel, and gambling expenses in Atlantic City and Las Vegas,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Raj Parekh said in a statement.
Jones faces a maximum of 10 years in prison at sentencing, which is set for Jan. 11.
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