Exec Who Raised Clinic's Rent Well Above Market Rates Sentenced to Prison

The former president of Philadelphia's Juniata Community Mental Health Clinic bought buildings that housed the clinics, used clinic money for renovations, and raised the monthly rent from $4,500 to $75,000.

A Philadelphia woman was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for stealing more than $2 million from the nonprofit mental health clinic she managed, the Department of Justice announced.

Renee Tartaglione, 62, the former president of the Board of Directors of the Juniata Community Mental Health Clinic, was convicted by a federal jury in June 2017 of 53 counts of conspiracy, fraud, theft and tax crimes.

A U.S. District judge this month ordered Tartaglione to serve 82 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Evidence presented at last year's trial showed that, between 2007 and 2015, Tartaglione purchased a building on 3rd Street in Philadelphia that housed the clinic and then raised the rent repeatedly, from $4,500 per month to $25,000 per month.

In 2010, Tartaglione bought a building on 5th Street, and Tartaglione used clinic money to improve it. In December 2012, Tartaglione leased the 5th Street building to JCMHC for $35,000 per month for the first two years, and $75,000 per month for the next three years; charges for both buildings that were substantially higher than market rates.

None of the JCMHC rent increases or the lease agreements were approved by JCMHC's board, and prosecutors showed that Tartaglione created fictitious documents to make the transactions appear legitimate.

Tartaglione was also ordered to forfeit $2.4 million from her scheme, and to pay $2.3 million in restitution to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, which will hold the money until a successor charitable organization can be identified.

"The defendant funneled millions of dollars, meant to help economically disadvantaged people with mental health issues, into her own pockets to finance her comfortable lifestyle," U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said in a media release.

"(This) sentence reinforces the basic precept that nonprofit organizations – especially those that provide important services to the disadvantaged – exist for the people they serve and not for the personal enrichment of their leaders," McSwain said.