Ex-paymaster accused of stealing $1.5 million from Miami doctor’s office

MIAMI — Police said a woman named Rachel Lynne Poor seriously enriched herself by stealing more than $1 million from the Miami doctor’s office where she worked as a payroll manager. But they said her replacement uncovered what was amiss.

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Miami police arrested Poor, 40, of Coral Springs, on three felony charges on Thursday.

According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, Poor was the paymaster at Miami Back & Neck Specialists, located at 4770 Biscayne Blvd. in the city’s Bay Point neighborhood.

Authorities said the orthopedic surgeon who owns the clinic filed a police report in June 2024 after the new payroll manager discovered the fraud.

Poor, according to the report, “had been altering her own payroll data, including modifying her salary and issuing unauthorized bonuses to herself without the (doctor’s) knowledge or authorization.”

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Investigators said when setting up the company account with payroll processor ADP, she misrepresented herself as its owner, granting herself “full administrative and supervisory access over payroll functions, including employee salaries, bonus creation, payment approvals and account-level permissions.”

Authorities said from September 2021 to January 2024, Poor bumped up her biweekly salary by $1,720 and gave herself bonuses up to $25,000 at a time, taking $1,092,692. They said she also made $411,737 in unauthorized personal purchases on a company credit card.

According to the report, MPD detectives drove up to Broward County on Thursday to take the New Jersey-born Poor into custody at her home.

Poor, facing charges of first-degree grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and credit card fraud, was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $35,000 bond as of Friday afternoon.

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