A Mount Vernon man who purloined funds from the payroll account at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern also ordered Kevin Christopher, 54, to pay back the $469,411 he diverted from the hospital during sentencing on Oct. 27, and to serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment.
From October 2017 to April 2019, Christopher made transfers from the payroll account to seven bank accounts and four credit card accounts he opened for himself. He used the funds to pay off credit cards bills, including $24,000 for dental work, and to take cash advances.
Court records do not explain how Christopher gained access to payroll information that enabled him to transfer funds to his accounts. He had never worked for the hospital or had any business connections with it, according to the criminal complaint, yet he knew details such as the bank account routing number.
Court documents also do not explain why it took 18 months to discover the leaky account, but eventually a hospital employee did notice and an audit was conducted.
Christopher used his real name, Social Security number and Mount Vernon address on his credit card accounts, so Yonkers police and the FBI had no trouble linking him to the transfers.
He denied guilt when he was arrested a year ago, but this past March he entered a guilty plea for wire fraud and agreed to a sentencing range of 27 to 33 months.
Assistant federal prosecutor T. Josiah Pertz recommended the full 33 months, in a sentencing letter submitted to Halpern.
“Kevin Christopher went on an 18-month shopping spree with a hospital’s money,” he wrote.
He highlighted Christopher’s criminal history, beginning with attempted robbery and trespass convictions at age 16; robbery and selling crack cocaine in his 20s; an assault and five more drug crimes in his 30s; and possession of crack cocaine at age 41.
“Having reached his 50s,” Pertz stated, “Christopher proved … that he had not aged out of crime.”
Elizabeth K. Quinn, an assistant federal defender, argued for leniency. She said in a sentencing letter that Christopher is obese, has diabetes and has a history of strokes that make him vulnerable to Covid-19 in prison.
She traced his troubles to age 10, when his father went on active duty in the U.S. Army and did not return home for five years.
“Mr. Christopher felt his father’s absence acutely,” she said in a sentencing letter.
Christopher had no role model, she said, and was “exposed to negative influences from his peers” when he switched from a Catholic school to a public school in the Bronx during the early 1980s plague of violence and drugs.
Quinn submitted several letters from friends of Christopher who depicted him as a devoted family man, a respected member of his community and a man remorseful for his actions.
Shireen Nunnery, his girlfriend of 20 years and mother of their four children, said in an email submitted to the judge that imprisonment would cause family hardship.
She is unemployed, suffered a heart attack in 2016, and relies on a pacemaker. Christopher, she said, accompanies her to her appointments, helps with grocery shopping and with the house chores she is unable to do.
“He has been great support mentally and financially,” she wrote, “and I would be completely lost without him.”
Christopher is concerned that Nunnery will be evicted from their home, Quinn told the judge. She asked him to permit time for Christopher to make arrangements for Nunnery’s care.
Halpern set a Jan. 4 surrender date. He recommended that Christopher be placed in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn. or in the closest possible prison to Danbury.
