A manager responsible for a Maryland assisted living facility has pleaded guilty to fraud.
35-year-old Salah Eldean Sood of Lutherville, previously ran Holland Manor Eldercare and was charged with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors said that Sood used patients’ identities to open credit card accounts where he charged some $70,000.
According to prosecutors, Sood collected the credit cards of six residents, added himself as authorized users on those accounts and charged purchases.
The investigation into Sood began after Baltimore County fire personnel were called in June 2015 to take a resident to the hospital. Rescue personnel noted that the facility was unsanitary and the patient’s injuries possibly stemmed from a lack of medical care. The patient died two days later.
Holland Manor’s assisted living program license was revoked by the state on September 25, 2015.
Officials for Baltimore county returned to the facility in December of 2015 while responding to a fire alarm. They discovered two patients who had been left alone – an 80-year-old patient who said no staff were available overnight.
The other patient was restrained in a bed and comatose, unable to communicate.
Sood and prosecutors came to an agreement of a sentence to be between 48 to 52 months. He will also be required to repay his victims in full – $74,753.24.
His federal sentence will run concurrent to the two-year state sentence he received for operating an assisted living facility without a license.
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