Man Accused of Swindling Hospital Out of $1.5M

A 31-year-old Waterford man is facing charges alleging he swindled $1.5 million in funds from Waukesha Memorial Hospital since 2006.

Jeffery A. Checker was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court on Wednesday with six counts of theft of movable property valued at more than $10,000. If convicted, he faces up to 60 years in prison and $150,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint:

In June 2011, employees at the hospital noticed $1.5 million was taken after Checker billed an exorbitant amount of money from the painting department to Wall 2 Wall painting. However, an internal audit showed much of the work billed to the company was done internally and no one at the hospital was able to identify an employee of that company coming in to do work.

All the invoices written to Wall 2 Wall were written between February 2006 and April 2011 and it was discovered the company was owned by Checker.

Police investigated Checker and discovered he had owned 72 vehicles, including 15 at the current time. Six of the vehicles were 2011 models and only two of them had liens, despite Checker only making $44,000 per year.

Checker said he padded the invoices because he had bills to pay, marital troubles and was going through a divorce. He said he used the money to pay himself, pay for his house and pay rent at a storage space where he was living at one point due to his marital problems.

He’s currently free on $2,000 bond while awaiting trial.