A former star in the Michigan Democratic Party has been criminally charged after allegations surfaced that she stole money from an elderly woman under her care.
According to a press release from the Kent County prosecutor’s office, Traci Kornak has been charged with three felonies:
one count of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult of $50,000 or more but less than $100,000;one count of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult of $1,000 or more but less than $20,000; andone count of false pretenses of $1,000 or more but less than $20,000.
She could face up to 25 years behind bars if convicted.
‘Where do you think this ranks in terms of skullduggery? Pedophiles, puppy abusers, and people who steal old people’s money?’
Kornak, the former Michigan Democratic Party treasurer and a member of Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel’s 2018 transition team, has been under intense scrutiny for years after she was named conservator for Rosalene Burd, an elderly nursing home resident with a traumatic brain injury.
Kornak has been accused of mishandling Burd’s funds, even bilking an insurance company to pay extra money for a caregiver who was not a licensed medical professional.
According to whistleblower Joe LeBlanc, the former director of the facility where Burd lived, Kornak used the tax ID of the assisted living facility and a billing template from another facility to create fabricated invoices for the insurance company totaling nearly $50,000 over two years, as Blaze News previously reported.
Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
LeBlanc claimed to have seen one check for over $23,000 in November 2021. When LeBlanc confronted Kornak about it, she “asked me to just cash it, and then she said she’d pay us a little money for the trouble,” LeBlanc recalled.
Burd died last April at the age of 86. According to journalist Charlie LeDuff, Burd’s debit card was used the day after she died.
Because of Kornak’s close association with Nessel, Scott Teter, the director of the Financial Crimes Division of the Michigan attorney general’s office, wrote a memo in September 2022 ordering “an isolation wall” that would prevent Nessel “from being provided or accessing any information” related to the state investigation into Kornak.
However, documents later uncovered by LeDuff revealed that Nessel sent an email in December 2022 referring to the investigation and suggesting that Kornak, an attorney, was up for a Kent County judicial appointment. Four reports related to the Kornak investigation were included in the email, according to LeDuff.
The investigation from the AG’s office was officially closed two weeks later with no charges filed against Kornak.
“Did [Nessel] hook up her gal pal? I say she did,” LeDuff later wrote.
Though more than three years have lapsed since his initial reporting on the story, LeDuff has never let it drop. Earlier this month, he ambushed Kornak and her attorney outside a hearing to ask questions about Burd’s money.
RELATED: Leftist AG Dana Nessel threatens to prosecute Michigan woman for allegedly sharing ‘misleading’ election info
“Where do you think this ranks in terms of skullduggery? Pedophiles, puppy abusers, and people who steal old people’s money?” LeDuff asked. He also pressed Kornak on whether she colluded with Nessel “to make this case go away.”
Kornak repeatedly dodged LeDuff’s questions and asked him not to touch her.
Michigan Republicans have repeatedly threatened to impeach Nessel in connection with the Kornak investigation, among other issues. Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is also implicated in the case, Michigan Enjoyer has indicated.
“Whitmer was planning to appoint Kornak to a judgeship as soon as the criminal investigation went away,” LeDuff wrote.
Nessel’s office, Whitmer’s office, an attorney for Kornak, and the Michigan Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.
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Traci kornak, Dana nessel, Michigan, Michigan democratic party, Kent county, Politics
