Lack of oversight allowed couple to embezzle, says inspector general

Poor oversight enabled more than $62,000 in earmarked funds to go unaccounted for, said New York's Inspector General Joseph Fisch. Fisch concluded a "lack of internal review" by supervisors at the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Assistance Program helped Erin Sherman-Rohl to embezzle the money.

Sherman-Rohl, 34, of West Sand Lake, pleaded guilty to stealing more than 10 percent of the cystic fibrosis program's annual budget with a Sheldon Jacobson, 51, of Schenectady County.

Investigators beleive Sherman-Rohl created phony patient claims for Jacobson and approved 18 payments from April 2007 to July 2008. Jacobson then cashed the checks and split the money with Sherman-Rohl. Both owed tens of thousands of dollars in personal and credit card debt and Sherman-Rohl admitted that she calculated the fraudulent claim amounts based on how much money she owed at the time.

Sherman-Rohl processed claims for Health Research Inc. in Menands, which is affiliated with DOH. The scam began to unravel in September 2008 when DOH's document control unit questioned the validity of Jacobson's "claims." A co-worker then found a wedding picture of Sherman-Rohl on Jacobson's MySpace page, along with photos of Jacobson smoking cigarettes, which is verboten for cystic fibrosis sufferers who battle the chronic lung disease. Sherman-Rohl's crimes were exposed just before she left Health Research Inc. for a job at the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Until that time, however, DOH supervisors failed to monitor program finances, despite warning signals.