ALBANY – United States Attorney Carla Freedman has announced that Victoria Shaw of Mahwah, New Jersey, the owner of Suffern, New York-based Wellcore, Inc., has agreed to pay $500,000 for her role in a scheme whereby she and a former Wellcore official forged signatures of community leaders on federal grant applications and then diverted for personal use federal funds intended to combat youth substance use.
“Protecting taxpayer dollars from fraud and abuse is one of my top priorities,” said Freedman. “Under the False Claims Act, Victoria Shaw paid far more in damages and penalties than she misappropriated, showing the important deterrent effect that this law can have in combatting fraud on federal programs.”
Wellcore officials also misappropriated funds from local grants for unallowable costs. She admitted that she used those funds to pay $15,000 to a criminal-defense attorney to represent a family member in a personal matter and that she spent thousands of dollars of grant funds to pay for gym memberships for herself and for her immediate family members. Shaw also provided evidence that an individual who was previously affiliated with Wellcore misappropriated grant funds while so affiliated.
Shaw spent grant funds to purchase home furnishings, to pay for their child’s day camp expenses, to pay for their child’s birthday party, to pay a contractor to do home-improvement work, to pay for personal travel, and to pay for their swim club membership.
