Chattanooga: City employee resigns after allegations of cancer fund fraud

Officials are evaluating whether the city suffered any losses in connection with a former city employee who allegedly faked breast cancer and defrauded local organizations.

Keele Maynor, an employee with the city since 2002 and most recently an administrative assistant in the Department of Land Use Development, resigned Friday. In her resignation letter, provided by the city, she said she had been untruthful with the city.

Memorial Hospital recently informed the Breast Cancer Network of Strength that someone was participating in programs and activities who was not being treated for breast cancer at Memorial, said Lynda LeVan, director of the Breast Cancer Network of Strength.

“This news came as a surprise to our organization, whose mission is to ensure, through information, empowerment and peer support that no one faces breast cancer alone,” she said in a statement.

Rachel Houghton, executive director of the Helen Distefano Fund, a nonprofit agency that assists about 60 cancer patients and their families a year, said the organization had helped Ms. Maynor.

Ms. Houghton said the fund cut off its aid upon learning that Ms. Maynor, who had been aided as a cancer patient for about seven years, was not a cancer patient.

To qualify for assistance from the Distefano fund, Ms. Maynor submitted the requisite documentation of eligibility, including a signed letter from an oncologist, tax records and proof of dependent children in the home, Ms. Houghton said.

“There was no falling through the cracks, she met all the guidelines,” she said.

Although the organization did not give Ms. Maynor any money, Ms. Houghton said it helped pay for her utilities. She declined to disclose the dollar amount of that assistance.

See tomorrow’s Times Free Press for complete details.