Princeton HealthCare System official accused of embezzling $186,000

A top director at Princeton HealthCare System, the parent company of the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, has been charged by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office with embezzling $186,000 from the hospital.

Last week the prosecutor’s office charged Jhoanna Engelhardt-Fullar, the former director of medical staff services, with second-degree theft by deception, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office. Engelhardt-Fullar faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in state prison and a $150,000 fine. On Thursday, she posted $35,000 bail.

The prosecutor’s office alleges that Engelhardt-Fullar stole the money from the PHCS Medical Staff account between April 2010 and December 2011 by issuing fraudulent checks to herself, transferring funds from that account to her personal credit cards and making over 130 purchases using the medical staff account’s VISA debit card.

“The charges for various merchandise and services included grocery stores, department stores, restaurants, auto repairs, timeshare payments and Apple products,” the prosecutor’s office statement said.

A brief statement from PHCS said the organization contacted law enforcement in early February after discovering “potential irregularities” in an internal audit. In February, Engelhardt-Fullar was separated from PHCS, according to the prosecutor’s office.

“The Princeton Police and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office conducted an investigation that resulted in the current action,” the PCHS statement read. Spokespeople from the prosecutor’s office and from PHCS would not answer any further questions about the case.

The theft charge would not have been the first charge pressed against Engelhardt-Fullar. In May 2002, the U.S. Air Force in federal court charged her with “larceny within special maritime jurisdiction.” The Air Force dropped the charges three months later, and Engelhardt-Fullar was accepted into a pre-trial diversion program, according to federal court records.

According to her LinkedIn page, Engelhardt-Fullar was hired by PHCS in 2007. She was previously employed by Lourdes Health System in New Jersey from 1994 to 2007, according to the page.

The Princeton Borough Police declined to comment and referred questions to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. Lourdes Health System did not respond to a request for comment.

The alleged embezzlement comes only days after the University Medical Center moved from its location on Witherspoon Street to its new location on Route 1 in Plainsboro.