Former employee charged with embezzling $600,000 from Bucks County hospital
Norma Galagarza, 68, is accused of stealing charitable funds belonging to Doylestown Hospital to pay her taxes, cell phone bills, car payments, and personal credit cards.
A 68-year-old Bucks County woman was charged Tuesday with embezzling more than $600,000 from Doylestown Hospital while she worked there as a staff director, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said.
Norma Galagarza, of Chalfont, was released on $250,000 unsecured bail after being arraigned on felony counts of theft, forgery, and related offenses.
Galagarza could not be reached for comment, and online court records did not show a lawyer listed for her.
Investigators determined that Galagarza allegedly made nearly 900 unauthorized transactions from 2008 to 2021, when she retired, from a charitable fund belonging to the hospital.
Galagarza allegedly used the hospital’s money to pay her taxes, cell phone bills, car payments, and personal credit cards, prosecutors said.
The hospital’s board of directors alerted authorities in January 2022 to unusual banking activity involving an account known as the Charitable Fund.
Hospital officials believed that the account, which was created in 1991, had been long-dormant until they started receiving notices about insufficient funds and later learned that the mailing address for the account allegedly had been changed from the hospital to Galagarza’s home.