MIAMI (WSVN) - The former chief operating officer of the Jackson Health Foundation has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $4 million from the nonprofit over the course of a decade, federal prosecutors said.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Charmaine Gatlin, 52, admitted on Sept. 11 to defrauding the Foundation, the fundraising arm of Jackson Health System, by submitting false invoices, steering funds to herself and relatives, and accepting kickbacks from vendors.
Prosecutors said Gatlin approved roughly $2 million in invoices for services never provided by a Georgia-based audiovisual company.
In exchange, she received $1 million in kickbacks, some of which went toward paying her personal credit card bills.
Gatlin also directed a merchandise vendor to buy luxury items from Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Apple for her, while continuing to award the vendor contracts with the Foundation, prosecutors said.
Court documents further detail Gatlin’s misuse of restricted donations, including $55,000 in Foundation funds for thousands of “first aid kits” that were falsely labeled as trauma burn giveaways.
In 2023, prosecutors said she also used a fraudulent invoice to cover the cost of a rose gold-colored golf cart delivered to her Weston home.
The scheme ran from 2014 to 2024, during which Gatlin earned a salary between $185,000 and $290,000, prosecutors said.
A co-conspirator, vendor Yergan Jones, has also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme.
Gatlin is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 25 before U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
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