Jayne Kulhanek, Wire Fraud, Illinois 2024

CHICAGO — In a brazen scheme that spanned six years, Jayne Kulhanek, 57, used corporate credit cards of The Laser Network LLC and United Eye Care Providers to fund lavish vacations in France and Spain, purchase antique furniture, and pay her own state and federal income taxes.

Kulhanek, of Benton Harbor, Mich., pleaded guilty in February to one count of wire fraud. The scheme netted her $491,328.57 from January 2006 to December 2012, with the majority of the funds being used to pay off her personal credit cards.

The former executive director of the two Deerfield-based physician offices used the company's funds to cover up her scheme by making false accounting entries in the companies' ledgers. When company officials initially confronted her about the antique furniture in November 2011, Kulhanek said she had used the wrong credit card to make the purchase.

However, the scam continued for another year before it was fully exposed. The U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah ordered Kulhanek to 18 months in federal prison and to pay $364,598.05 in restitution.

"The crime is not one of a mistake made one time, but a six-year scheme to steal money and cover it up," Assistant U.S. Attorney Sunil R. Harjani argued in the government's sentencing memorandum.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Kulhanek's scheme was a blatant abuse of her position as executive director of the two companies. As she had access to the companies' corporate credit cards and bank accounts, she used them to fund her personal expenses and conceal the scheme from her employers.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/former-director-two-north-suburban-medical-practices-sentenced-18-months-defrauding