Disgraced Dianne Wilkerson is still raking in Benjamins

Disgraced jailbird ex-state senator Dianne Wilkerson is going to need a bigger bra to stuff all the cash into from her new big-money job.

At the very least, by her own admission, the former Roxbury solon has been pocketing $3,280 a week, plus full benefits.

But her recent sworn testimony in an ongoing civil case left a Superior Court judge with the impression that the crooked Democrat might be making as much as $7,480 a week at a failing little nursing home in Roxbury.

Think about that. Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson is about to go to prison for grabbing $7,000 — once. Wilkerson herself went to the can for stuffing a mere grand into her bra at a Beacon Hill bistro, as recorded on an FBI camera.

For a year now, the ex-con (federal Bureau of Prisons #21757-038) has been employed as executive assistant to the receiver of a bust-out nursing home in Mission Hill — the Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Center (EPBHC) on Fisher Avenue.

They call it “the Benjamin.”

During testimony in civil court last week, as Judge Christopher P. Belezos wrote in a post-hearing order, he heard “allegations of nepotism and self-dealing by a member of the Receiver’s team.”

That would be ex-Sen. Wilkerson. Are you shocked?

“The subject of such allegations, Ms. Wilkerson,” the judge continued, “offered, under the pains and penalties of perjury, testimony that she is an employee of the EPBHC, receiving full benefits, being paid at a rate of $82 per hour, working an average of 90 hours a week.”

Eighty-two times ninety equals 7,480. A week.

“If such testimony is accurate,” the judge continued, “it raises significant concerns as to the rate of remuneration being paid to Ms. Wilkerson by an institution in receivership with a projected 2025 loss of $4.4 million.”

He ordered the EPBHC to hand over Wilkerson’s 2024 W-2’s and/or 1099’s, as well as recent paystubs and all other “non-payroll checks” made out to her since her nationwide-search hiring.

I wonder what the judge thinks is going on with the erstwhile bra-stuffer…

I called Wilkerson Friday. I asked her about the judge’s order, specifically whether she’s paid $82 an hour, and whether she works 90 hours a week.

“The answer to both questions is yes, but no one asked me the third question.”

And what would that be?

“How many hours do I actually get paid for? And the answer to that question is 40. That’s all.”

Forty times 82 still works out to $3,280 a week. Which is not bad for an ex-con who is about to turn 70 years old.

Somewhere, Tania Fernandes Anderson, Dean Tran and Flim Flam Flanagan are reading these numbers and becoming very excited. Even if it’s only 40 hours, 82 bucks per hour for those sticky-fingered pols would leave them thinking they’d died and gone to heaven after they get out of the Big House. (Flim Flam hasn’t been convicted yet but…)

Wilkerson claimed she was pleased to be able to clear up any, uh, ambiguities in her sworn testimony.

“I’m glad you called,” she told me, “because otherwise people might be thinking that I was making over seven thousand a week.”

She said she would be producing the employment records demanded by the judge on Monday. Next, I asked her about what the judge referred to as those “allegations of nepotism and self-dealing.”

“Not relevant!” she said. “Ask the receiver.”

That would be Joe Feaster, the local attorney. I called him Friday as well and got voicemail. Still waiting for that call back, Joe. I wanted to ask him about another issue at the Benjamin, namely the cost of auditing its financial records. It’s turning out to be quite expensive, it appears.

The recent court hearing that led to the judge’s demands for more information about Wilkerson stemmed from a letter the court received from the administrator of the Benjamin, alleging multiple irregularities.

Wilkerson responded to that letter with her own affidavit, accusing her work rival of “ranting and misguided and false statements… a salacious, intentionally false narrative… embellishing stories…”

Wilkerson wrote, “The representation to the Court by the Administrator that I engaged in financial mismanagement and unauthorized financial transactions is patently false.”

One of the allegations concerns her son’s plowing company that received $17,300 this winter for snow removal at the Benjamin. I asked Wilkerson if that was her son Cornell D. Mills, who has had, shall we say, a few problems himself over the years.

“Not relevant!” she said. “Ask the receiver.”

Then there’s her grandson, who is also on the Benjamin’s payroll. The administrator accused him of “doctoring” hours for a security worker.

“There are so many alarming allegations of criminal behavior,” Wilkerson fumed. “The problem is none of it is remotely true. Grandson does not have access to ADP! (payroll service)”

I asked her about her grandson and guess what her response was.

“Not relevant! Ask the receiver.”

The Benjamin seems like a dysfunctional place. It must be, if Dianne Wilkerson is overseeing it. What could possibly go wrong?

In paragraph 44, she outlines her sleuthing into certain purchases by yet another employee at the nursing home.

“I quickly became convinced that something wasn’t right. He was ordering toilets that couldn’t be found anywhere in the building on a Friday. I emailed him and four (4) toilets appeared outside the door of my office on Monday… He called in sick the next day and never returned…”

When you’re Dianne Wilkerson, weird stuff just keeps happening to you. Whether you’re in jail or not, at the State House or the Big House.

On Friday, I was talking to her on the phone when she suddenly said, “There’s somebody at the front door. I have to go.”

Click.

The moral of this story is, Wilkerson got jammed up stuffing Benjamins into her bra. Now she gets paid many more Benjamins every week for working at the Benjamin.

I guess Ilhan Omar was right after all. It is all about the Benjamins.