Chaim Stern gets 2 1/2 years for stealing benefits
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former Connecticut nursing home operator has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars of employees’ benefits.
Chaim Stern, 72, who owned nursing homes in Bridgeport and
Waterbury, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in New Haven after pleading
guilty to embezzlement and tax offenses last year.
Stern, of the New York City borough of Queens, has already
paid $4.9 million in restitution for stealing employees’ pension funds, but he
still has to make $2.5 million in restitution for stealing their health care
funding and owes $2.2 million to the IRS.
Stern faced from 70 to 87 months in prison under federal
sentencing guidelines. The Hartford Courant reports that U.S. District Judge
Janet Hall said she was imposing a lesser sentence in large part because of
Stern’s lack of a criminal record, his charitable giving and his family
history. His mother was a Holocaust victim, his father survived a Nazi labor
camp and he emigrated from Romania to an impoverished childhood in Israel at
age 2.
Stern acknowledged the improper diversion of funds through
his lawyers. He claimed that he directed most of the money to investments in
his faith-based community that he hoped would generate income that he could use
to save the nursing home business.
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