Miami woman spent $100K raised for Miss Florida scholarships on dating sites, maids, FDLE says
A woman who for more than a decade collected donations to fund charities and scholarships for Miss Florida pageant contestants instead spent more than $100,000 of that money on personal expenses from shopping sprees to online dating fees and maids.
On Tuesday, Mary Wickersham, 76, who also goes by the name of Mary Sullivan or Mary Harvey, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, was arrested and charged with seven counts of wire fraud. FDLE agents say Wickersham used a simple scheme of diverting money into a bank account only she could access.
They said she even misled a handful of charities, businesses and people into donating money that she ended up keeping. Alleged victims include 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 in a prepared statement. “Agents believe the scam occurred over several years.”
In the six-page federal indictment, investigators said 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 real programs board of directors, according to the indictment.
She used the money, according to federal prosecutors, on personal expenses that included utilities, shopping sprees, dinners, home goods, for dining out, even to pay an online dating fee and hire a home cleaning service.
Representatives of the Miss Florida pageant had not returned interview requests by late Tuesday afternoon. It was not immediately clear if Wickersham had retained an attorney.
FDLE agents said Wickersham, the executive director of the Miss Florida Scholarship Program, worked as a volunteer, approaching people and asking them to donate for the worthy cause. The FDLE began looking into Wickersham after being told by someone at the Miss Florida Scholarship Program that money was missing.
Wickersham turned herself in at the Miami Federal Detention Center Tuesday morning. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida will prosecute the case.
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 4:29 PM.
