Bridget Briand, age 48, the former business office manager at Penacook Place Nursing Home in Haverhill, Massachusetts, has been indicted in connection with stealing tens of thousands of dollars from elderly residents. Covenant Health Inc. acquired Penacook Place in 2017 and discovered the discrepancies that led to further investigation of the company’s accounting. Attorney General Maura Healey’s investigation revealed that between 2018 and 2019, Briand was running an alleged scheme in which she stole more than $20,000 from an 88-year-old resident by writing checks to herself from the resident’s account. The AG’s Office also alleges that Briand transferred reimbursements from the facility, which were owed to a number of other residents, into the account from which she was stealing to cover up the original theft. When residents of Penacook or their insurance carriers overpaid the amount due for a particular month, Penacook would owe the resident a credit that was to be deposited into their account at Penacook, or Penacook would give the resident a check for reimbursement. The AG’s investigation found that Briand allegedly shifted credits from residents’ accounts and applied them as a payment to the resident’s account from which she was stealing to facilitate her scheme. According to the AG’s investigation, Briand also allegedly deposited a rebate check from a medical supply company that was payable to Penacook into the account she was stealing from. The AG’s Office alleges that Briand made regular false entries into the accounting system and the corporate books to misappropriate credits of other residents into the account she was stealing from. Briand was terminated in December 2019.
