Ex-accountant gets 4 years in $5.3M theft scheme against Children’s Healthcare, feds say

A former certified public accountant was sentenced to federal prison after conspiring to launder $5.3 million that a hacker stole from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in 2023, the U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday.

Ronald Deabler, 66, was convicted by a jury, sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay restitution for his involvement in the theft scheme, officials say.

In June 2023, federal prosecutors say a hacker gained access to a furniture vendor that contacts with Children’s. The hacker, posing as the vendor, requested the hospital send $5.3 million to a new bank account for the vendor that actually routed the money to Deabler’s bank account, according to the U.S. attorney’s news release.

In exchange for a commission, Deabler distributed the money through several transfers and mailed cashier’s checks. After the hospital system and its vendor detected the fraud a few days later, $4 million was traced back to Deabler and his accounts, federal investigators say.

The former CPA “used his knowledge of the banking system to launder millions of dollars stolen from a not-for-profit pediatric healthcare system that is dedicated to the welfare of Georgia’s infants, children, and teens,” U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said in the news release.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta detailed the financial and emotional impact of the theft through a victim statement, court records show.

“A loss of this magnitude has a concrete impact on our ability to invest in patient care, equipment, facilities, and staffing,” the healthcare system’s attorney wrote in the filing.

Staff members who approved the payment were “deceived by sophisticated fraud tactics” and have “experienced stress and anxiety” as a result of the crime, the statement says.