Former Grady Payroll Director Convicted of Embezzlement

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The former payroll director of the Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation has been convicted of stealing nearly $500,000 from the company, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

Donald Thomas, 55, ran the hospital’s payroll operations from 2008 to 2011. During that time, he used his knowledge of the payroll system to add greater severance and vacation pay to the accounts of terminated Grady employees. He then altered the records to ensure the new payments went into his bank account. Thomas received 134 payments using this scheme.

Thomas also drew up fraudulent checks payable to terminated employees, but he forged their endorsement signatures and added his bank account number to the endorsement.

The scheme was not discovered until a former employee contacted the payroll department about discrepancies in her federal W-2 tax form. By that time, Thomas had embezzled $480,000 from the hospital.

Thomas was found guilty of six counts of theft from an organization receiving federal funds, six counts of wire fraud related to the fraudulent direct deposit payments, and of two counts of bank fraud related to the forged checks. He will be sentenced on Feb. 25.

“At a time when health care institutions such as Grady Hospital are under the strain to meet the needs of their community, to include those served by publicly funded programs, the criminal actions of former Grady Hospital Payroll Director Thomas are all that more egregious,” J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Atlanta Field Office said in a statement.

“The conviction of Thomas should serve as a reminder that the FBI is part of an oversight process involving any and all allegations of thefts from federal health care programs and their related institutions and anyone involved in such activity could find themselves in front of a jury trial on similar charges.”