Former Florida county system CFO accused of theft

A two-count criminal indictment against the former CFO of four-hospital North Broward Hospital District, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was unsealed. The charges were theft from a government program, the U.S. attorney's office in Miami said. The former CFO, Patricia Mahaney, allegedly deposited a $7,896 hospital check into her bank account in February 1998 and a $5,876 hospital check into her account in March of that year. She faces up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines for each count. Mahaney resigned under pressure last year after she was accused of tipping off developers to a district plan to purchase property and attempting to steer a contract to a firm co-owned by her husband, Thomas Mahaney, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., businessman who died of a heart attack earlier this year. The district last year undertook a criminal investigation into financial irregularities at the healthcare system. Mahaney, who worked at the district for 21 years, made $258,000 at the time of her resignation. -- by Mark Taylor