Former state worker accused of stealing from special needs fund

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A former employee of the Kentucky Commission (now Office) for Children With Special Health Care Needs, is accused of stealing approximately $45,000 from the agency for her own personal use, according to a federal indictment.

Prosecutors say 53-year old Diana Baker, of Louisville, was a 28-year employee of the Commission, which is an agency within the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services that helps families with children with special health care needs in obtaining funding and care.

The indictment alleges that between 2007-and-2008, Baker, who was an Administrative Branch Manager in the Louisville office, manipulated software programs, to generate fraudulent payment vouchers, which purported to reimburse families for out-of-pocket expenses or pay third party vendors for services to children.

The vouchers were sent in the regular course of business to the Kentucky State Treasurer’s Office, which issued checks that were actually used to make payments on Baker’s personal credit card accounts, pay doctors and dentists for services to Baker’s family, and, in one instance, to pay a carpenter for work on a dock for lakefront property owned by Baker, according to the indictment.

The investigation leading to Baker’s indictment was conducted by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Office of the Inspector General and the FBI.