A former certified public accountant was sentenced to four years in federal prison after he was convicted for participating in a scheme to launder $5.3 million stolen from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
In addition to the prison sentence, Ronald Deabler, 66, of Atlanta, will also have to serve two years of supervised release and was ordered to pay restitution of $682,860. He was found guilty by a jury on Feb. 12, 2026.
“Deabler used his knowledge of the banking system to launder millions of dollars stolen from a not-for-profit pediatric healthcare system that is dedicated to the welfare of Georgia’s infants, children, and teens,” U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said in a statement on July 23. “Scammers, swindlers, and thieves who target our vital healthcare institutions, and their associates who launder stolen money, will face the full consequences of their actions.”
According to officials, an unnamed hacker gained access to the email system of a commercial furniture vendor for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in early June 2023. Pretending to be one of the vendor’s employees, the hacker contacted Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and updated the vendor’s bank account information on file with the children’s healthcare system for ACH payments.
The bank account information provided was actually for Deabler’s bank account. On or about June 13, 2023, the hacker directed Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to wire $5.3 million into the accountant’s bank account.
Deabler, a business owner and former CPA, agreed to distribute the stolen money in exchange for a commission, officials say. Shortly after the $5.3 million was deposited into his account, Deabler opened a second bank account to move the money around. When the bank prevented him from doing so, he then transferred more than $1 million to the new account.
Deabler then converted approximately $3.5 million of the proceeds into four cashier’s checks that he mailed to individuals and entities as directed by the hacker.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and its furniture vendor detected the fraud within a few days after the transfer of funds. The healthcare system then notified its bank, which traced the funds to Deabler’s bank account.
Additional tracing of the proceeds resulted in the recovery of approximately $4 million from Deabler’s accounts and the bank accounts that received Deabler’s cashier’s checks.
“Criminals who steal from a children’s hospital are not just committing financial fraud—they are exploiting an institution that exists to care for vulnerable children and support their families,” Marlo Graham, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement. “Deabler chose to use his financial expertise to help conceal and distribute millions of dollars stolen from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This sentence demonstrates that anyone who profits from these schemes will face serious consequences.”
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Photo credit: Sasun Bughdaryan/Unsplash
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Tags: accountant, Accounting, cpa, money laundering, prison sentences
