The latest defendant in an embezzlement scheme involving wards of court-appointed guardianships was sentenced Thursday to one day in prison with three years of supervised release.
Alesha Mitchell, 44, of Suffolk, Virginia, was also ordered to pay $85,974 in restitution and a $100 special assessment under the sentence imposed by Judge Joel H. Slomsky of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Mitchell, represented by attorney Heather Mattes, was charged with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud by federal indictment in June 2021. She pleaded guilty in March 2022 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud for her role in the scheme.
Co-defendants Carlton Rembert, 70, of Hampton, Virginia, and Gloria Byars, 63, of Aldan, were also charged at the time with bank fraud and conspiracy, as well as five counts of bank fraud. Byars faced an additional charge of money laundering, but she died in August before she could be sentenced.
Byars was originally charged in 2019 with former Democratic county council candidate Keith Collins and his wife, Carolyn Collins – Byars’ sister – as part of the same plan. Byars faced hundreds of state charges before the eight-count federal indictment was filed.
Keith and Carolyn Collins, of the first block of Princeton Avenue in Ridley Park, faced 18 state charges each of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and receiving stolen property, and three counts of conspiracy.
The couple, who minister at the Church of the Overcomer in Trainer, pleaded guilty before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan for one consolidated count of theft by unlawful taking in March. They were each sentenced to four years’ probation and ordered to pay more than $54,000 in restitution.
According to information from the indictment and affidavits in the state complaint:
Byars, who was also Rembert’s sister, had worked from 2008 to October 2016 at a Havertown company that provides state-designated departments. In her role, she assisted the company owner in managing department assets and had access to their checkbooks and bank accounts.
Byars was appointed guardian of several wards in 2015, which also gave her access to their assets. She founded her own company called Global Guardian Services LLC in August 2016, shortly before leaving the Havertown company.
Byars, Rembert and Mitchell fraudulently obtained more than $1.2 million in unauthorized checks from 120 incapacitated departments and deposited them into accounts they opened at local banks, then split the proceeds.
Byars opened corporate bank accounts for Global Guardian and ‘ICU Records & Billing’, while Rembert and Mitchell opened accounts for shell companies ‘CWR Medical Services’ and ‘ACC Medical Billing LLC’. Rembert also opened business bank accounts in the name of a company he previously operated called Grace Home for Children.
Byars stole money from the departments’ accounts by writing unauthorized checks to ICURB, Global Guardian, ACC Medical Billing, CWR Medical, and Grace Home to make the transactions appear to be legitimate medical expenses incurred by the departments.
According to an earlier statement by U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero, Rembert deposited more than $695,000 in checks into the bank accounts of the shell companies and then withdrew more than $388,000 in cash.
He also received $217,082 in certified checks that he sent to Byars, while keeping some of the stolen district money for himself.
Byars pleaded guilty in November 2023 on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return. The Delaware County Medical Examiner’s Office later reported that the cause of death was the “combined toxic effects of several medications” and that the cause of death was suicide.
Rembert, who represented himself with Bala Cynwyd attorney Vernon Chestnut, was convicted at trial last year on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud. He was later denied requests for acquittal and a new trial.
Rembert was convicted earlier this month to 5½ years in federal prison with five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $400 special assessment and $534,335 in restitution.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tiwana Wright and Samuel Dalke prosecuted the case.
“The greed and callousness here are off the charts,” Romero said in a news release when Rembert was sentenced. “It is despicable that criminals specifically target the elderly and infirm to take advantage of their vulnerability. My office and our partners will continue to do everything we can to hold these crooks accountable and protect our elders from such greed, fraud and abuse.”