Virginia Gambler Gets 9 Years for $6.7 Million Theft from Injured Kids Program

The former chief financial officer of a Virginia state program that helps children who suffered injuries at birth embezzled millions from the organization.

On Thursday, John Hunter Raines, 38, of Providence Ford, Va., was sentenced to nine years in prison for white-collar mischief that saw him steal $6.7 million from the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Program (Birth-Injury Program). That’s a year more than prosecutors were seeking.

Raines squandered money meant to compensate families of babies who suffer from brain or spinal cord injuries during the birth process that resulted in the infants becoming developmentally and/or cognitively disabled.

Extravagant Lifestyle

He blew more than $100K gambling at the Rivers Casino in Portsmouth, Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent, and on the Virginia Lottery. But Raines doesn’t appear to have been driven by a gambling problem, since betting was a relatively small portion of his expenditure. In fact, he spent more acquiring luxury golf carts than he did at the casino.

His motivation was the pursuit of an “extravagant, private jet-setting lifestyle,” according to prosecutors.

“It is easy to cast Raines’ crimes off as a fraud on an abstract program while losing sight of what the money he stole represents,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. “The $6.7 million Mr. Raines stole would have been invested and paid out for claims in the future.”

Blocked Audits

As CFO and deputy director of the Birth-Injury Program, Raines was responsible for about $650 million in investments in 2023.

He had access to the Birth-Injury Program bank account, allowing him to siphon off money to accounts in his own name via at least 59 separate wire transactions. He also used the Birth-Injury Program debit card to make purchases, prosecutors said.

By law, the Birth-Injury Program required an independent certified public accountant to audit the program’s accounts each fiscal year. Raines deliberately impeded this process by failing to provide the accounts to auditors when requested. In this way, he was able to delay an audit by more than three years.

“Raines’ actions in this case constitute a monumental betrayal of public trust,” prosecutors wrote. “Most importantly, Raines betrayed the children who rely on the Birth-Injury Program for survival.”