A judge looked down on the former leader of The Children’s Heart Foundation who admitted stealing more than $750,000 from the charity, and he summed up the crime as “one of the most shocking cases of fraud that I’ve encountered.”
But as a roughly two-hour sentencing hearing for William Foley neared its end, U.S. District Judge John Tharp still struggled to understand why it happened. Foley devoted years of his life to the non-profit world. And then, he spent six years stealing money that would have been spent trying to save children’s lives.
“It is incomprehensible — literally incomprehensible to the court — how Mr. Foley could have engaged in this years-long crime spree,” Tharp said Friday.
Then, the judge handed Foley a two-year prison sentence, making clear he only did so at the request of federal prosecutors. When the hearing began, he said, he had anticipated giving Foley closer to three years.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Parente said he asked for less time after careful consideration not only of Foley’s crime, but also because Foley appears otherwise “to have dedicated his life to helping others” as well as his special-needs son.
Before learning his sentence, Foley told Tharp he was “so sorry for my terrible mistake.” He then turned to members of The Children’s Heart Foundation gathered in Tharp’s courtroom and told them, “I’ll work for the rest of my life — for the rest of my life — to pay back the money that is due.”
“I will not allow this terrible mistake to define me or my future,” Foley told the judge as he concluded his remarks.
The Children’s Heart Foundation was founded in 1996 and is dedicated solely to funding congenital heart defect research, according to its website. Foley joined the organization as its executive director in 2004, records show.
Last August, Foley pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting his scheme had cost the charity $770,386 since 2011. He admitted he moved $508,090 from the charity’s bank account to his own, using that money to pay expenses on his personal credit card. He also used the charity’s credit card to make $220,112 in purchases on clothing, airline tickets, hotel rooms, sporting event tickets, groceries, gas and meals, records show.
Finally, records show he used the charity’s debit card to withdraw another $20,604 that he used for personal expenses.
Still, no one Friday could fully explain Foley’s motivations. Parente told the judge, “I don’t know if this was greed, power or what it was.” In a court memo, the prosecutor also wrote that, “there were no big purchases, no gambling addictions, no drug problems.” Foley and his wife made a combined $250,000 a year, Parente said.
Whatever the cause, Parente said Foley committed the theft as the charity tried to raise money to fund research — ultimately having to choose certain research projects over others. Now, donors have disappeared upon learning of Foley’s theft.
“While the defendant enjoyed seats at a hockey game or a nice dinner out with friends, sick children continued to suffer waiting for organizations like the victim charity here to find a cure for their terrible diseases,” Parente wrote.
Keith Spielfogel, Foley’s defense attorney, credited his client with helping to grow The Children’s Heart Foundation. He noted that, when Foley was hired as executive director in 2004, it had four annual fund-raising events and a budget of $330,000. By 2017, he said it was involved in more than 100 fund-raising events nationally, and its budget had grown to $2.7 million.
The attorney also said Foley suffered from severe depression, along with an “unrelenting” self-imposed pressure to work and support his family.
But Tharp later said, “depression does not clearly explain why Mr. Foley embarked on this fraud.”
