A Methuen woman was indicted Monday on charges in connection with stealing more than $530,000 from a retirement home and nursing center in Lawrence.
According to Attorney General Maura Healey, 43-year-old Sherry Verdick, was indicted by a grand jury on five counts of larceny using a single scheme over $1,200, larceny over $1,200, larceny over $250 by a single scheme, two counts of making false entries in corporate books with intent to defraud, three counts of forgery, three counts of uttering and obtaining a signature under false pretenses. She will be arraigned in Essex Superior Court Jan. 7, at 9 a.m.
Verdick was the business manager at Berkeley Retirement Home and Nursing Center in Lawrence,
Healey’s office alleges that from January 2016 through September 2018, Verdick ran “a sophisticated scheme to steal money from several accounts operated by the facility.” Prosecutors say she wrote several hundred checks to herself from various accounts affiliated with the retirement center, allegedly forged various signatures of other Berkeley employees to steal money from Berkeley accounts, improperly used a corporate credit card for personal purchases and allegedly altered the company’s payroll system to reduce her health insurance contribution to zero. The attorney general’s office also alleges that Verdick was able to steal money from the estate of a deceased resident by misleading another employee into signing a check which Verdick then deposited into a Berkeley account for which she was a signatory.
In total, prosecutors believe that Verdick stole $536,556 from various accounts associated with Berkeley.