Mount Kisco Man Indicted For Defrauding $10M From Foster Care Program

MOUNT KISCO, NY — A Hudson Valley businessman helped a priest to loot a Catholic charity, according to federal prosecutors.

The federal grand jury in Kansas just indicted a Mount Kisco businessman and a Kansas priest in connection with a scheme to defraud a foster care organization of $10 million.

"Whymark used the fraudulently obtained funds from SFM [Saint Francis Ministries] toward the purchase of an approximate four-million-dollar home in Armonk, New York, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and cash withdrawals," prosecutors told the Topeka Capitol Journal.

According to court documents, William Byrd Whymark, 50, of Mount Kisco, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering.

Robert Nelson Smith, 50, from Kansas, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

The men are accused of working together to embezzle millions from Saint Francis Ministries, a Kansas-based 501c(3) faith-based organization that provides foster care and social services in the states of Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

In 2018, the group's board agreed to upgrade its IT systems, hardware and software programs. As Saint Francis Ministries CEO, Robert Smith, an ordained Episcopal priest, entered into an agreement on behalf of his organization with a company owned by Whymark.

Smith is accused of approving and authorizing payments of fraudulent and inflated invoices submitted by Whymark. He is also accused of using Saint Francis Ministries credit cards for personal, unauthorized expenditures.

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, federal prosecutors said that Whymark misrepresented his academic credentials and Smith went behind the Saint Francis board's back to give Whymark's company its contract.

Despite his $164,000 salary as the organization's top IT officer, Whymark outsourced work to his New York-based company, WMK Research. He then outsourced the work again from his company to subcontractors in India. Whymark submitted fraudulent invoices that manipulated the value of the work performed by the subcontractors he wasn't supposed to use, prosecutors said. Smith is accused of then rubber-stamping the inflated invoices without the authority to do so.

The FBI is investigating the case. Feds have already obtained warrants to seize Whymark's bank accounts and initiated civil asset forfeiture proceedings.