Grand Rapids — The former treasurer of the Michigan Democratic Party allegedly made questionable transactions totaling $123,000 while acting as a conservator, a witness testified Friday.
Traci Kornak was serving as a guardian for a mentally incapacitated woman when she, among other things, transferred $85,000 from her ward to accounts in her name, according to witnesses.
The testimony was heard Friday during a preliminary examination of criminal charges against Kornak at 63rd District Court in Grand Rapids. After listening to witnesses, District Judge Kirsten Holz found sufficient probable cause to forward the case to Kent County Circuit Court.
Kornak, 62, a lawyer from Comstock Park, is charged with two counts of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult, false pretenses and attempted false pretenses. The last charge was added during the hearing. The felonies are punishable by up to 32 years in prison.
An earlier investigation of Kornak by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, which didn’t find any wrongdoing, has been the source of scrutiny for four years. The office is led by Attorney General Dana Nessel, who, like Kornak, is a Democrat and used Kornak on her transition team after her election in 2018.
After the hearing, Kornak and her attorney, Mark Hunting, declined to comment.
Testimony during the preliminary exam focused on curious expenditures from the financial accounts of Kornak’s client, Rosalene Burd, and all the hours Kornak’s daughter worked as a caregiver for the ward.
Burd died in 2025 at age 86.
The spending by Burd, who used a wheelchair, paid for numerous trips to stores and restaurants, said Lacey Lott, a supervisor with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The transactions included payments for food, alcohol, auto repairs and entertainment, she said.
A state investigation found that $10,000 was spent on items unrelated to Burd, according to testimony.
Burd was entitled to 16 hours of attendant care a day, but the insurer, State Farm, was regularly charged more than that, including, on one occasion, for 27 hours for one day, testified a State Farm official.
Besides receiving care from a nurse aide at the assisted living facility, Burd was also cared for by Kornak’s daughter. Kornak charged the insurer at the higher rate of the nurse aide, using the facility’s identification number, although her daughter didn’t work there.
‘I thought it was fraud’
When the facility, the Village of Heather Hills, received an invoice for the work, its management immediately became suspicious, testified Joe LeBlanc, its former deputy director. The invoice used the facility’s ID but looked nothing like its regular invoice form.
“We thought it was something bigger,” LeBlanc said about the facility’s suspicion. “I thought it was fraud.”
Another Heather Hills official testified she became alarmed when she received a State Farm check on behalf of Burd’s care for $50,000. The normal check was $5,000.
The money was for work that had never been done by the facility, testified Heather Jablonski, the former administrator of Heather Hills.
When the facility notified Kornak about the large amount, she suggested the facility cash it and keep 10% for itself, Jablonski said.
During the preliminary hearing, Hunting, Kornak’s lawyer, attacked the prosecution’s case, saying it wasn’t supported by specific checks, invoices and other financial documents. During his questioning of witnesses, he also seemed to suggest his client had multiple contracts with Burd that allowed her to spend.
“When you talk about unreported, I don’t have to explain a damn thing. They do,” he told the judge. “I don’t believe they have.”
Rosalene Burd’s family speaks out
After the hearing, several of Burd’s siblings said they were glad to see the case bound over to the higher court.
“She took advantage of old people,” said Burd’s brother, Ray Funk of Dorr. “She was making enough money. Why take advantage? No one should be treated like that.”
Burd’s sister, Debbie Valenti of Allegan, said Kornak didn’t want the family to visit Burd without checking with Kornak first.
“She used her authority to take advantage of Rosie,” she said. “Nobody should have gone through the treatment she did.”
Court records accuse Kornak of accounting discrepancies, false invoicing, double-billing, invalid purchases, and comingling her money with that of her ward, Rosalene Burd.
Burd suffered a traumatic brain injury in an auto wreck.
An audit of Burd’s finances by the Kent County Sheriff’s Office allegedly found questionable transactions totaling $123,000 from 2020 to 2023, according to probable cause documents in district court files.
Of the transactions, $85,000 went from Burd into several accounts for Kornak, $14,000 were overpayments for attendant care and $10,000 were for items unrelated to Burd, according to the documents.
An agent for State Farm Insurance, which paid Burd’s accident settlement, told authorities Kornak improperly billed her conservator fees at her attorney rate, said the court records.
When Kornak’s daughter filled in as Burd’s caretaker, Kornak improperly billed the hours at a professional rate, according to the documents. Kornak used the tax identification number of Heather Hills even though her daughter didn’t work there.
Kornak texted a worker at the assisted living facility, saying it should cash the insurance checks and keep 10% for itself, according to the court records.
A nurse aide at Heather Hills was with Burd when the elderly woman first learned about a $30,000 withdrawal from her finances by reading about it on a bank document, the worker told authorities. Kornak then entered the room at the assisted living facility and snatched the document from Burd’s hand, said the aide.
Guardian fraud case gets political scrutiny in Lansing
Kornak’s handling of Burd’s finances has been a political hot potato in Lansing ever since The Detroit News raised questions about it in 2023.
Kornak, a frequent contributor to Democratic candidates, was treasurer of the state party from 2019 to 2025.
After the newspaper’s report, the Michigan Attorney General’s office looked into the matter but closed the investigation after two months without taking any action.
Republicans criticized the probe for failing to interview Burd or Joe LeBlanc, a former Heather Hills director who was the source of the Detroit News story.
They also took issue with Nessel for emailing two members of her staff about the investigation in December 2022. She told the workers Kornak requested documents from the probe because the allegations were holding up a possible judicial appointment. The investigation was closed in September 2022.
The Michigan House Oversight Committee, led by Republicans, held hearings that raised questions about $243,000 in payments or financial transfers from Burd to Kornak.
In response to criticism of its investigation, the Attorney General’s office said the probe was stymied by the fact that State Farm and Heather Hills didn’t want to pursue charges.
As for the charges filed by the Kent County prosecutor, the Attorney General’s office said the two agencies investigated different things. The Attorney General looked into insurance fraud while the county prosecutor pursued mishandling of Burd’s personal finances, said a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office.
The Kent County Prosecutor’s Office began its investigation after getting a referral from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The agency’s Adult Protective Services had investigated Kornak’s handling of Burd’s finances and found what it believed were financial irregularities. Adult Protective Services began its review after being contacted by Burd’s nurse aide.
fdonnelly@detroitnews.com
(313) 223-4186
@prima_donnelly
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Witness recalls questionable money transfers in guardian embezzlement case
Reporting by Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
