Former Shriners Hospital Manager Sentenced for
Stealing More Than $828,000 from Shriners Hospital

St. Louis, MO: Robert Steven Brodzin was sentenced to 41 months in prison involving his scheme to defraud Shriners Hospital for Children of more than $828,000, United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway announced today.

"Shriners is a great organization that Brodzin took advantage of using his position of trust as Director of Fiscal Services," said Hanaway. "Brodzin's crime should not stand in the way of future public support for Shriners given the important and vital work they do here and elsewhere. Shriners has cooperated with the Government's investigation and strengthened its financial controls after learning of Brodzin's crimes. Shriners will continue to play a vital role in this community."

From October 30, 2000 through May 2, 2008, Brodzin, a certified public accountant, was the Director of Fiscal Services for Shriners Hospital for Children - St. Louis. When the thefts occurred during 2004-08, Brodzin's job duties included the processing of invoices that Shriners received from assorted legitimate vendors. Generally, as part of his job duties, Brodzin prepared checks and presented them to his supervisors at Shriners for approval, signature, and ultimately payment to Shriners' vendors.

As part of his scheme to defraud, Brodzin created three "dummy" companies: West County Orthopaedic Supply, West County Surgical and BEI Systems, Inc. None of these companies ever actually provided any goods or services to Shriners. To implement his scheme to defraud, Brodzin used his position as CFO at Shriners to establish these three "dummy" companies as qualified vendors of Shriners, and then obtained unauthorized payments from Shriners by presenting checks for approval and payment in these three companies' names. Brodzin admitted with his plea last August that he lied to Shriners' management team and Board of Directors by telling them that certain checks and payments for these companies were for legitimate hospital expenses. Brodzin further admitted to secretly obtaining and using an unauthorized Shriners' credit card for his personal expenses.

Brodzin used the stolen money from Shriners to buy luxury automobiles, a condominium in St. Petersburg, Florida, vacation travel and related expenses in Las Vegas, Nevada and other locations, golf and health club memberships, season tickets for the games of assorted professional sports teams in St. Louis, Missouri, and also to fund his personal small business opportunities.

Brodzin, 41, O'Fallon, MO, pled guilty in August to one felony count of mail fraud, and appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Catherine D. Perry. In addition to his prison sentence, Brodzin will make restitution of $828,973 to Shriners.

Hanaway commended the work on the case by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Frontenac Police Department.

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