Years of unlawful payments? Retirement home director must stand trial for fraud

The former director of a nursing home for the elderly has to answer to the criminal court in Basel. The accusation: unlawful overtime, bonus and expense payments during her time as director of the Humanitas nursing home in Riehen BS.

The former director of the Humanitas care home for the elderly in Riehen BS will have to answer to the Basel criminal court next week. The public prosecutor's office is accusing her of fraud, in some cases on a commercial basis, and possibly mismanagement.

The proceedings are based on a criminal complaint filed by her former employer, as reported by "BZ Basel" on Wednesday. The woman was a director there from 2008 to 2023.

The focus is on payments totaling around 95,000 francs. This relates to overtime payments, bonus payments and lump-sum expense allowances that allegedly took place between 2010 and 2023.

Overtime despite contractual exclusion

According to the indictment, the former director had overtime paid out to her eight times over a period of nine years, even though her employment contract expressly stated that she was not entitled to overtime. In this way, she is said to have enriched herself by around 40,000 francs. The public prosecutor's office assumes that she acted commercially by obtaining a continuous source of income.

The case also involves four bonus payments of between 200 and 10,000 francs, totaling around 11,500 francs. These were incorrect because, according to the Articles of Association, the approval of the entire Board of Directors would have been required.

The former director is also alleged to have introduced additional expense regulations for senior management. This stated that the management was entitled to a lump sum of CHF 6,000 per year. However, the employment contract stipulated that expenses would only be reimbursed against receipts.

Based on these regulations, the former director is said to have paid herself CHF 400 per month. The resulting loss is estimated at around CHF 43,600. The expense regulations were submitted to the tax authorities for approval in 2014.

Structure with a masonic tradition

The Humanitas nursing home was originally founded by freemasons. It was run as a cooperative until 2022, after which it was converted into a public limited company. Even today, the purpose of the company states that the home is run "according to fundamental Masonic values".

Neither the Board of Directors of Alterspflegeheim Humanitas AG nor the former director wished to comment on the proceedings to "BZ Basel" ahead of the hearing.

The woman is presumed innocent until a final verdict is reached.