A 77-year-old woman who stole funds from Miss Florida scholarship donors sent to prison
Since 2002, Mary Wickersham worked as the executive director of the Miss Florida Scholarship Program to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for pageant contestants.
But over the past decade, her charitable role turned out to be nothing more than a scheme to steal from donors to enrich herself, according to U.S. authorities. Wickersham, 77, pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to spending scholarship donations on personal expenses, ranging from shopping sprees to online dating fees. And this past week, she was sentenced to one year and three months in prison.
Wickersham must surrender to federal prison authorities in late June.
Wickersham, who went by the name of Mary Sullivan or Mary Harvey, diverted money into a bank account that only she could access, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents who investigated the case for federal prosecutors. They said she even misled a handful of charities, businesses and people into donating money that she ended up keeping for herself.
Her total haul: $243,000. As part of her sentencing, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman ordered her to repay the victims.
Among them: the Everglades Foundation, one of the state’s biggest environmental organizations; a small shop in Homestead named Anne Marie’s Boutique; and the Children’s Miracle Network, a nonprofit that raises money for children’s hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.
Also on the duped list, a former Miss Florida pageant winner only identified as L.R.
“Ms. Wickersham not only stole charitable donations from the scholarship program, but also from two local charitable organizations and a local business affiliated with Miss Florida,” FDLE Miami Special Agent in Charge Troy Walker said after her arrest last year.
According to a federal indictment, Wickersham formed a scam corporation called Miss Florida LLC and used it to open an account with Bank of America back in 2011. She created the corporation without the knowledge of the Miss Florida Scholarship Program.
“Wickersham then redirected hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Miss Florida LLC bank account, which she controlled, by using her position as director to solicit donations from the program’s recurring business sponsors and donors, all while representing that those monies would be used to fund scholarships for the Miss Florida program,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
She used the money on personal expenses that included utilities, shopping sprees, home goods, dining out, and even to hire a home cleaning service, prosecutors said.
The FDLE began looking into Wickersham after being told by someone at the Miss Florida Scholarship Program that money was missing.
This story was originally published May 4, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
