Kimberly Russell Hobson – When Arrogance Meets Bad Choices

Her mug shot says it all. Kimberly Russell Hobson stares out at the world, blank-faced, glazed over and defeated. As she stares into the police camera you can almost guess what she is thinking.

Kimberly Russell Hobson was the director of finance for High Point Regional Hospital, High Point, North Carolina. Last summer she was arrested for numerous crimes, the worst of them all was embezzling $3 million. As she stares at me from her mug shot, I say to myself: “I know that look, that look of regret and of the realization of where greed, arrogance and one bad choice after another has left her.”

Her bad choices will cost her up to 32 years in prison. She will become institutionalized and far removed from the life she imagined. Now 46, she will be an old woman when she walks away from the jail house.

As the charges were read, Hobson nodded and admitted guilt to federal prosecutors on the following charges: wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. She stole the money over 14 years, embezzling from 2003 to 2017.

What was the first step? When did she decide she could steal without compunction? We can only imagine that one fine morning she looked over her shoulder to discover that no one was looking back. She had been working with the budgets and records of payments to vendors for years, specifically payroll payments to the physicians on staff. Then she began to note how potentially easy it could be to use a hospital payables account to make payments to her personal credit cards and bank loans.

She decided to dip her toe in the waters of poor ethics. In the myriad of financial transactions required of a regional hospital complex, who would notice a few thousand here and there. She was bright enough to not be obvious. Goodness knows, she carried out her fraud over 14 years, when she was only 31. To her mind, she was the “new generation,” computer savvy and far out in front of a bunch of “old people” who trusted her work.

Did her fraud pass the smell test

Therefore, when investigators started to dig they uncovered strange internal records of payroll payments to doctors that were never received or accounted for, and payments from the hospital to Hobson’s credit cards and bank loans.

While she was cautious enough to take her time in stealing the money, what she did with the money tells us that her bad choices went to fueling what I would call an “Ends-Means” problem. She wanted her share of the good life and high style. She wanted “what they had,” the rich and the successful. So, with part of the money she bought BMW’s and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. She bought gold coins, pearls and expensive apparel. Oh yes, and she did so without accumulating debt.

It may have been a tip-off to those around her. She had a good job, a decent job, but she was not in what you would call a “big job.” Her unethical choices to steal and commit fraud were done out of a need to be someone she wasn’t. She could have been more successful in another company or if she had gained more credentials, but she decided to steal instead. Bad choices are often like that.

Kimberly Russell Hobson – Appearances

Hobson had the need to appear more successful but she did not want to work toward that success. It was much easier to steal. She watched her original co-workers grow old, or retire, or leave to go to new jobs. She was well aware that she had become a “fixture.” She knew all of the in’s and out’s and rather than being grateful for her career and a job, she rationalized that she not only deserved better, she would pay herself.

As Kimberly Russell Hobson was sentenced to 8 years 6 months and she must also pay the hospital and the feds to the tune of $3.8 million. She will undoubtedly (and I know this) lose family, long-time friends, business associates and respect. The life she knew is over.

Arrogance is a tough task-master. Her choices will isolate her but perhaps, just perhaps, she will replace the arrogance with compassion.

While this is a story about unethical and illegal choices – I believe in Second Chances and stand ready to send Kimberly Russell Hobson a copy of my book by that title and help her when she is released if she or her family is interested.  As a wise man once said to me: “You have made a terrible mistake, but You are not a Mistake!”

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