West Virginia dental receptionist LaDonna Johnson accused of steal of $250K

LaDonna Johnson, a longtime receptionist for two West Virginia dental practices in Hamlin and Alum Creek, was accused of embezzling at least $250,000 in a civil complaint filed by the practices’ owners, Drs. William J. Artrip and Carol V. Buffington. In the Hamlin office, Johnson’s duties included scheduling appointments, receiving and crediting patients’ cash and other payments, entering those payments into the practice-management software, preparing the bank deposits, and handling billing — a concentration of financial control in one set of hands that is a recurring theme in embezzlement cases.

According to the complaint, the scheme surfaced through a single cash payment. On June 11, 2011, Dr. Artrip performed a seven-tooth extraction and watched the patient hand $700 in cash to Johnson. He took that day’s cash and checks home to deposit himself, and when he reviewed the deposit slip Johnson had prepared, the $700 was missing — it did not appear on the deposit ticket, and there was no cash to deposit. Johnson was out of the office the next day; on June 14, Dr. Artrip confronted her about the discrepancies and terminated her. About three weeks later, an envelope containing $700 was found in a cabinet next to her desk, the complaint says, and when Johnson later filed for unemployment she was found to have committed misconduct in that process.

The practices retained a forensic accountant to examine the computer accounting records and patient charts and — the complaint alleges — identified four separate schemes that misappropriated more than $250,000. The suit, filed in Lincoln Circuit Court, sought a jury judgment for the full amount along with interest, punitive damages, and a constructive trust over any assets traceable to the alleged theft.

The pattern the practices describe is a familiar one: the complaint alleges that in the three months before Johnson left for a Hawaiian vacation, essentially no cash payments were recorded at all. An unexplained gap or decline in cash receipts relative to patient volume is one of the more reliable early warning signs of embezzlement that Prosperident regularly identifies during investigations.

This case adds to Prosperident's growing archive of dental practice theft and embezzlement cases across North America.