Dublin, Ohio-based ViaQuest filed a civil lawsuit levying embezzlement charges against its former top executive and ex-finance chief on Monday, the same day the healthcare firm also announced the appointment of the executives’ replacements.
ViaQuest, which serves over 20,000 individuals and families across Ohio and Indiana, filed the suit in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging its ex-CEO and founder Richard Johnson and former CFO Michael Bell embezzled millions from the behavioral and mental health provider for personal enrichment.
Johnson, who founded the company in 1999, served as the company’s CEO until his departure on May 24, while Bell — Johnson’s son-in-law — served as CFO from 2019 until April 2026, according to the complaint, a copy of which was provided to CFO Dive by ViaQuest.
Among other fraudulent actions, the business’ former CEO and CFO siphoned company funds to an AI startup owned by Johnson, expanded their executive salaries without approval, and used company resources to fund “lavish and extravagant lifestyles at ViaQuest’s expense,” the 119-page complaint alleges.
“After his termination, Johnson even went so far as to break into ViaQuest’s office and remove items from the property,” the complaint reads. “In the face of Johnson and Bell’s continued malfeasance, Plaintiffs were left with no choice but to bring this lawsuit.”
From a period beginning in January 2025 to about March 2026, both the former CEO and CFO fraudulently used ViaQuest funds to pay for or to reimburse themselves for personal expenses, the lawsuit alleges.
Johnson used about $47,000 in company funds to pay for his Range Rover lease, tapped $41,025 in company funds for Ohio State football tickets, and used ViaQuest funds to pay $15,879 in membership fees for a country club, the complaint alleges.
Both Bell and Johnson also charged company credit cards for golf outings and other personal expenses, and diverted ViaQuest funds to pay for tax return preparation for themselves and family members, the company’s suit said. Bell also used his position as CFO to pay “unearned bonuses” for his wife, Kayla Bell, who served as ViaQuest’s chief growth officer.
As part of their scheme, the two executives also fraudulently increased their pay, with Johnson and Bell in February receiving about a 21% and 25% salary increase, respectively, without board authorization, the complaint says.
The complaint also details several instances where the former executives routed ViaQuest funds to Johnson-owned entities. For instance, after a Johnson-owned entity, Hospice Holdings, purchased 100% of ViaQuest’s hospice business in January 2025, both the former CEO and ex-CFO failed to separate the bank accounts for the two entities as per the agreement, according to the allegations.
Instead, Bell directed the company’s controller to continue to pay Hospice expenses with ViaQuest funds, with an eventual investigation led by Alvarez & Marsal ultimately finding the two had diverted approximately $12.9 million from ViaQuest in order to pay Hospice obligations, according to the complaint.
In another instance, the complaint alleges Johnson fraudulently tapped ViaQuest funds to support the growth of an AI company, Cairo/Joco, where he served as managing partner and had made a personal investment he did not disclose to ViaQuest’s board.
In March 2025, after Johnson’s investment in Cairo/Joco, Bell in his capacity as CFO directed the controllers of both ViaQuest and Hospice to help assist with the entity, noting in an email that “for just the startup phase, Rich is wanting us to handle their books.”
“I honestly don’t anticipate the lift having to be much on our end, but we will need to manage the bank accounts, AP, billing, financial reporting, etc,” Bell wrote in the email, according to the complaint.
Additionally, Johnson directed ViaQuest to purchase services from Cairo/Joco without disclosing his relationship to the latter company to the board. That included the payment of $9,000 from ViaQuest to the AI startup for an “AI Leadership Series, to train both Bell and Emily Stickley, then serving as the company’s chief operating officer, on the use of artificial intelligence.
“ViaQuest did not consider other vendors for this training, did not compare the training that Cairo/Joco provided to training offered by other providers, did not conduct a bidding process, and did not negotiate the price of the training,” the complaint says.
ViaQuest also signed a $10,000 contract with the AI startup for a proof of concept related to its behavioral health unit and a separate contract for $100,000 per year for an “AI adoption program.” Additionally, Bell transferred at least $239,169 in either ViaQuest or Hospice accounts to Cairo/Joco, according to the complaint.
ViaQuest tapped company veteran Emily Stickley and named Emily Wagner to the roles of CEO and CFO. Viaquest did not respond to requests for comment on the suit against Johnson and Bell.
