CLEARFIELD – A 65-year-old Sykesville man was sentenced to state prison Thursday for stealing potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars from a nursing home while serving as chief executive officer.
Samuel Joseph Zaffuto was originally charged with 19 felony charges and 17 misdemeanors for his actions while employed at Christ the King Manor in DuBois.
Zaffuto was diverting funds from the nursing home to support the Sykesville AG and Youth Fair, vacations, vehicle purchases and his family.
Prior to sentencing before President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman, current CEO and Chief Administrator Paula Felton-Werner read from a victim impact statement that outlined the extent of his crimes, which began as early as May 2004 and continued until his termination in July of 2019.
She explained that she was “appalled by the total absence of management oversight and the extensive level of nepotism of the past administration.”
While dealing with the COVID pandemic, she and her team worked to “undo and repair the significant damage left in the wake of Mr. Zaffuto’s severe operational and financial crimes and neglect.”
He misled everyone into believing he was “a good person by promoting a food booth at the Sykesville Ag & Youth Fair under the guise of a CTKM Auxiliary fundraiser.”
In reality, CTKM “provided financial and human resources, inventory, supplies, equipment and labor to finance the operations of its food booth at the annual fair. This became customary behavior year after year.
“Mr. Zaffuto even purchased a new $57,000 truck without board consent to pull his food trailer, while CTKM made the loan payments under the perception of it being a company vehicle.”
“His actions were shameful, disgraceful and contradictory to the organization’s core mission and religious values for which he was entrusted to uphold for some of our most vulnerable soul,” she pointed out.
Instead of using money allocated to fix 50-year-old windows in patients’ rooms, he directed employees “to roll up towels and place them on the windowsills to keep the cold air out in the winter, while funds earmarked for replacement of the windows were used to upgrade his office and the office of his personal assistant (who happened to be his wife).”
Leaks in the roof were dealt with by placing buckets to catch the rain and obsolete equipment was not replaced, she said.
During his time as CEO, he was also “known to be continually absent from the facility.”
“Though our Forensic Auditor concluded that CTKM suffered a financial loss in excess of $900,000, we suspect that the amount misappropriated by Mr. Zaffuto over many years exceeds that amount. (The majority of the fair’s revenue is cash and difficult to account for.),” she told Ammerman.
In addition, in June 1996, the organization believes Zaffuto “sold” property owned by CTKM Auxiliary to the Sykesville Ag & Youth Fair for $50,000.
“Despite request by our counsel, neither Mr. Zaffuto nor the fair have produced any documentation that demonstrates that the funds were actually paid.
“The fair is where Mr. Zaffuto profited from year over year while continuing to misappropriate CTKM resources, all while positioning himself to personally reap the benefits and neglecting the true needs of the residents of CTKM,” she stated.
His arrest and the uncovering of these crimes also affected the community’s perception of the company leading to a lack of confidence, which impacted donations and gifts, she noted.
“Due to the statute of limitations and other challenges, we will never be able to quantify or recover the funds, goods and services that Sam Zaffuto pilfered from our organization.”
She asked Ammerman to make us “whole in spirit” by giving Zaffuto a state prison sentence.
His plea agreement for only one felony charge of theft required that he pay restituion of over $70,694.73 prior to sentencing.
District Attorney Ryan Sayers provided an audit that determined the restitution numbers but noted that more was alleged to be taken, which may be pursued in a civil case.
Ammerman asked if CTKM was satisfied with this amount.
Felton-Werner confirmed this but again asked for a period of incarceration for Zaffuto.
Attorney Thomas Kauffman of Indiana County, who represented Zaffuto, asked for his sentence to be postponed for 90 days to allow Zaffuto to be evaluated medically by the jail because he may require house arrest.
He stated that “a fair sentence is probation” in this case because he helped CTKM grow into a $30-million organization and he has no prior record.
Ammerman disagreed with this and sentenced Zaffuto to nine months to five years in state prison.
In a statement released after Zaffuto’s sentencing, CTKM said “Christ the King Manor is pleased with the outcome of today’s court sentencing of former CEO and Administrator Samuel Zaffuto.
“We continue to be fully committed to excellence in care for our residents. As a trusted member of the DuBois community for more than 50 years, we pledge to maintain our heightened standard of transparency in all our endeavors.
“We greatly appreciate the support we have received from our community. Our mission to provide compassionate care that empowers our residents to live full and dignified lives remains unwavering.”