His mother was in a nursing home. But he spent $332,000 of her money to pay his own bills.

A federal grand jury in Lexington has accused a son of spending more than $332,000 that was supposed to go for his mother’s care in a Louisville nursing home.

John Jerome O’Hara of Lexington was indicted Friday on 18 counts, including 10 counts of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud and four counts of “access device fraud.”

Access device fraud describes any type of crime that involves credit or debit cards, ATM cards and other types of account access devices that affect electronic monetary transactions by transferring funds from one bank account to another.

The indictment alleges that $332,149.95 represents the gross proceeds derived from the offenses.

O’Hara “wrote checks to himself, his family, cash, and other entities for such expenses as school fees, child support and vacation expenditures” from his mother’s bank accounts, the indictment says.

Acting as his mother’s power of attorney, O’Hara electronically transferred money from bank accounts and then used those funds to pay for personal expenses “including cell phone plans, credit card payments, youth soccer fees and entertainment,” the indictment says.

“In making these gifts and expenditures, O’Hara was at all times acting in his own interest and not in the best interests of his mother,” the indictment says.

O’Hara could not be reached for comment on Saturday. A telephone number for the O’Hara home in Lexington was not in service. An attorney for O’Hara was not listed in the court record.

O’Hara had acted as his mother’s power of attorney since June 2014, and was authorized to deposit money on her behalf and to pay any of her bills or debts, court documents say.

He was not authorized to make gifts of his mother’s property or transfer her financial assets to himself or others, the indictment says.

The mother, identified only as “S.T.” in the indictment, had Alzheimer’s disease and was admitted to Wesley Manor Retirement Community in Louisville in February 2013. During her time at Wesley Manor her condition worsened, and she was unable to make financial decisions on her own, the indictment says.

She had maintained a “sizeable balance in her three bank accounts,” and received about $7,000 in monthly income from Social Security and other investments. Her basic living expenses at Wesley Manor amounted to $7,400 per month.

Between June 11, 2014, and February 1, 2018, O’Hara failed to pay all the money his mother owed for living expenses at Wesley Manor, “causing other family members to pay in excess of $100,000 to keep her residence there,” the indictment says.

O’Hara also failed to make mortgage payments on his mother’s house in Lexington, which went into foreclosure in March 2018, the indictment says.

Instead of making payments for the use and benefit of his mother, O’Hara “misused funds for his own benefit,” the indictment says.

It says he wrote checks drawn on his mother’s accounts at Chase Bank and made them payable to cash, to himself, to his daughter or for personal expenses. Some of these checks he signed as “POA” or power of attorney.

For example, the indictment lists 2014 checks for $6,000, $9,000, $9,500 and $6,500 written to John O’Hara as the payee. Another check for $1,264.48 was made out to “Anchorage Yacht/Tennis,” according to the indictment.

The indictment says O’Hara abused his authority as power of attorney to make more than 100 electronic transfers to his or his family’s personal bank accounts from July 29, 2014, to Feb. 1, 2018. He also used access to his mother’s accounts to make hundreds of electronic transfers to third parties for payments of bills and other personal matters.

For example, on Aug. 22, 2014, O’Hara transferred $5,800 from his mother’s account to a bank account controlled by him, the indictment says.

On Sept. 6, 2016, $4,800 was transferred to pay off a Chase credit card belonging to O’Hara, the indictment says.

On Nov. 14, 2016, a $462.78 payment was made to the Time Warner Cable account in O’Hara’s name through the cable company’s online payment system.

Each count of bank fraud carries a penalty of no more than 30 years in prison, a fine of up to $1 million or twice the amount of loss, and supervised release of no more than five years.

Each count of wire fraud carries a penalty of no more than 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and supervised release of no more than three years.

Each count of access device fraud carries a penalty of no more than 15 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and supervised release of no more than three years.

O’Hara is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 21 in U.S. District Court in Lexington.

This story was originally published December 8, 2018 at 5:45 PM.