RICHMOND 鈥 A top executive at a fund meant to help the families of developmentally disabled children was sentenced聽Wednesday to 9 years in prison, one year more than than prosecutors were seeking.
John Hunter Raines is the former chief financial officer for the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Program, a fund dedicated to support developmentally disabled children.
Last October, Raines pleaded guilty to stealing $6.5 million from the fund. That money was used to buy luxury golf carts, private jet flights, and Bitcoin and Dogecoin, as well as to wire himself money and bankroll a gambling habit.
Raines was arrested in August of 2024. In his role, he was responsible for managing the fund鈥檚 $711 million in finances, which are invested in a manner similar to a pension fund. Court records indicate he was able to wire himself millions of dollars, and that he had a Mastercard linked to the fund from which he was able to make fraudulent purchases.
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In one exchange shared by prosecutors, Raines joked about 鈥渨hich of my kids' college funds I鈥檒l use鈥 to book a private jet from Richmond to Las Vegas.
Last month, prosecutors urged Judge John Gibney to sentence Raines to 8 years imprisonment, describing his actions as "calculated and repetitive."
"Raines' actions in this case constitute a monumental betrayal of the public trust," prosecutors wrote. "Most importantly, Raines betrayed the children who rely on the Birth-Injury Program for survival."
The Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Program exists to help a subset of Virginia parents whose children are born with devastating injuries caused by neglect or medical errors during childbirth. It was created in 1987 by the Virginia legislature, and is one of two in the country.
The fund was created at the same time as the legislature capped medical malpractice awards. Legislators felt that brain injuries, which require a lifetime of attention and medical expenses, should be managed by the fund, rather than the courtroom, where awards were capped at $350,000. Doctors and hospitals pay into the fund every year.
As part of his plea agreement, Raines is required to pay restitution in full to the fund.
Raines is the second person to embezzle from the fund. In 2010, an employee with the fund was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for embezzling $755,000 from the fund.
The employee, Iris Allen, had been embezzling from the fund for a period of 5 years, from 2004 to 2009.
Leadership of the fund was restructured after Raines was arrested. The fund鈥檚 longtime executive director, George Deebo, quietly resigned. The fund has hired a new CFO, William 鈥淏illy鈥 Johnston, and a new executive director, Dawn McCoy.
In a release sent via retained consulting firm McGuireWoods, the fund announced that it had taken 鈥渘ew measures鈥 to protect the financial integrity of the program.
McCoy promised a 鈥渟tronger, more resilient organization focused on directing resources to support the families we serve.鈥
