Lorita Fair, 51, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, formerly of New Haven, waived her right to be indicted and pleaded guilty to one count of theft in connection with healthcare. According to court documents and statements made in court, Yale New Haven Health Systems (“YNHHS”) is a healthcare system with more than 30,000 employees that provides medical care to patients at several locations in Connecticut and elsewhere. In January 2020, Fair began working in the payroll department of YNHHS as a temporary employee performing payroll functions.
In May 2020, Fair was hired as a full-time employee as a Payroll Processing Associate at YNHHS. Shortly thereafter, Fair began engaging in a scheme to embezzle money and funds from YNHHS by creating fraudulent entries in the YNHHS payroll system that resulted in Fair and two other individuals receiving payroll payments to which they were not entitled. As part of the scheme, Fair made fraudulent entries in the YNHHS payroll system, either by directly entering the fraudulent payments into the online system, or by manually adding lines to a spreadsheet of payroll payments after the spreadsheet had been reviewed and approved internally at YNHHS.
The fraudulent payments would then be made by direct deposit from the YNHHS payroll system into Fair’s and the other two individuals’ personal bank accounts. The other two individuals then kicked back to Fair a portion of the fraudulent payroll funds they each received. Between June and December 2020, Fair caused a total of $116,260.41 in fraudulent payroll payments to be made to herself and the other two individuals.
