Woman With Local Political Ties Faces Federal Indictment In Alleged Fraud Scheme
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A woman with long-time ties to politics in Philadelphia now faces a federal indictment that alleges she defrauded a city mental health clinic, by misappropriating funds.
The federal indictment charges 60-year old Renee Tartaglione with defrauding and stealing money from the Juniata Community Mental Health Clinic between 2007 and 2015.
Federal prosecutors allege Tartaglione purchased the building which housed the clinic on 3rd Street, then raised the rent, repeatedly, causing the clinic's rent to spike from $4500 a month to $25,000 a month. She was President of the clinic's Board of Directors at the time.
The indictment also alleges an unnamed co-conspirator purchased another building on 5th Street, using a check signed by Tartaglione, and in 2012, leased it to the clinic for $35,000 a month for two years and $75,000 a month for the next three years.
Prosecutors allege that Tartaglione and her co-conspirators "created false and fictitious documents in an attempt to make the transactions appear legitimate."
The indictment alleges that the rent Tartaglione charged the nonprofit clinic was substantially in excess of the market rent, and that she falsified her tax returns by underreporting her income for at least four years.
Renee Tartaglione is a former deputy city commissioner under her mother, Marge Tartaglione, the city commissioner who ran the city's elections operations for more than 30-years, until 2011.
Renee Tartaglione, who was first employed by the City Commissioners in 1984, left in 2010, in a settlement agreement with the City's Board of Ethics. It claimed she violated the City Charter by engaging in political activity.