Boston, Massachusetts — The former chief executive of a long-struggling Mission Hill nursing home will spend six months in federal prison for steering pandemic relief money away from the facility he was supposed to be saving.
Tony Francis, who ran the Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Center for roughly a decade, was sentenced May 20 in U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. Judge Indira Talwani also ordered three years of supervised release and more than $43,600 in restitution to the home, according to the Bay State Banner.
Francis pleaded guilty in February to misapplying federal funds tied to COVID-19 relief. As part of his plea, he admitted to using a $159,900 Economic Injury Disaster Loan, designed to help small businesses and nonprofits weather the pandemic, to chase a defunct nursing home in Connecticut. He later tapped Edgar Benjamin funds to make payments on a personal loan.
A nonprofit drained at the worst possible time
Francis told the court he saw the Connecticut deal as a way to give the Edgar Benjamin more leverage with suppliers. Talwani didn’t buy it. The plea agreement, she pointed out, described the deal as one Francis was entering personally. “It may be that to go buy a nursing home is a good investment strategy, but it wasn’t the Benjamin’s investment strategy,” she said.
The Mission Hill facility, a historically Black nonprofit, was already on shaky ground. In 2024, Francis tried to close it outright, citing “insurmountable financial challenges.” Community pushback led to a court-appointed receivership and pushed him out of the building.
Francis apologized in court. “I accept full responsibility for my actions. I deeply regret my lapses in judgment,” he said.
The bigger civil case is still alive
Talwani made a point of separating the federal sentencing from a parallel civil suit filed by the receivership in March 2025. That suit alleges Francis stole and embezzled more than $3 million during his time at the top. He denies it.
Francis tried to use the federal plea to wiggle out of a $1.5 million lien on his Needham Heights home, telling Suffolk Superior Court the criminal restitution made the real estate attachment excessive. The state court rejected that argument outright.
The federal judge drew the same line. “What I’m doing here is not sentence for any other alleged misconduct nor is it a discounting of any other alleged misconduct,” Talwani said.
The sentencing lands in a tougher enforcement climate for nursing home leaders. State and federal regulators have spent the last year ratcheting up scrutiny on operators who treat facilities like personal piggy banks — from an Arkansas administrator accused of pocketing resident funds to bankruptcy trustees clawing back millions from collapsed chains.
What happens to the building
The Edgar Benjamin itself is in the middle of a $6.5 million sale to Allaire Health Services, a for-profit operator. Most of those proceeds will go to creditors. As a nonprofit, anything left over has to flow into another charitable receivership for similar populations under Massachusetts law.
The receivership asked for a closing extension through June 13. Francis is scheduled to self-report to prison in mid-July.
Source: Bay State Banner. Photo: Pexels.
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