Chester County leaders dodge questions on Maisano’s record as guardian, expert witness, and bogus degrees

With one lone exception, Chester County’s top elected officials are refusing to comment on Treasurer Patricia Maisano, a woman who has twice faced credible accusations of financially exploiting elderly wards in her care while serving as a court-appointed guardian, according to a Broad + Liberty report published Monday.

Additionally, top officials in the county Democratic Party like Chairwoman Charlotte Valyo and Vice Chair Jerry Pyne also refused to offer any comment on Maisano’s past, including the fact that for years, Maisano has boasted of having a masters and doctorate degrees, but those degrees came from a diploma mill.

Only Republican County Commissioner Eric Roe acknowledged the report and the problems it conveyed.

“These allegations, if true, are really alarming. I hope Treasurer Maisano will address them publicly,” Roe said. “After all, the voters and taxpayers of Chester County have an important decision to make this November. Now more than ever, Chester County needs trustworthy elected officials who will look out for taxpayers.”

Democratic commissioners Josh Maxwell and Marian Moskowitz did not respond to a request for comment. U.S. Representative Chrissy Houlahan, whose 6th Congressional District encompasses all of Chester County, also did not respond.

Maisano has for years worked as an expert witness in court cases, a role in which the expert can usually charge hourly fees similar to that of a licensed attorney. She has also been a guardian of elderly wards, a role in which she might have complete legal and financial power over an elderly person who has been deemed incapacitated by the courts.

The Broad + Liberty investigation published Monday uncovered two cases in which Maisano was accused of fleecing her wards while working under her corporate name, IKOR. In one of those instances, the accusation wasn’t from a family member, but from a court-appointed factfinder stemming from a dispute in a guardianship in Delaware.

“IKOR, for their part, egregiously overbills. There is no way to soften, sugar coat, or otherwise explain this finding,” the factfinder wrote. “[A] thorough review of twenty-one (21) IKOR invoices from February 2007 through November 2008 evidenced disturbing billing trends and tens of thousands of dollars in overbilled amounts.”

A second attorney was also appointed by the same court to double-check the efforts of the first factfinder, and this second review resulted in the same conclusions.

“I have to agree with [the first factfinder’s] assessment that IKOR engaged in a pattern of significant and systematic over billing [sic] in the instant matter such that the disabled person was egregiously overcharged for professional guardianship [of the property] services rendered to it by IKOR,” the second reviewer found.

The original factfinder recommended IKOR’s billings of $104,000 be cut by $46,987.86, a suggestion the second attorney ultimately agreed with.

Those new revelations came on top of previous reporting about Maisano’s controversial past.

In a December report, Broad + Liberty highlighted that Maisano had been excluded from court cases in which she was an expert witness because her expertise was questionable.

“Here, the Report [authored by Maisano] contains two and a half pages of vague and conclusory assertions that Plaintiff has PTSD, and that Defendant is the direct cause of this ailment,” a judge wrote in one of the cases. “Nowhere in the Report does Maisano explain the criteria that she used to diagnose or confirm that Plaintiff has PTSD, nor does she explain how she came to the opinion that Defendant was the direct cause of Plaintiff’s psychological ailments.”

In October 2021, Broad + Liberty reported that Maisano’s masters and doctorate degrees were from Sheffield State University, a known diploma mill. This outlet went as far as trying to verify if Maisano had ever attended the University of Sheffield — a real university — but a spokesman with the university said it could find no records of her. (Broad + Liberty provided the university with other surnames beyond Maisano.)

Additionally, Maisano has never refuted the idea that her graduate degrees are not legitimate, and has never responded to numerous requests for comment about the matter.

Currently, Maisano’s professional website, Varna LLC, advertises her as an expert witness on elder abuse. 

The website for Chester County Democrats, meanwhile, lists Maisano among its endorsed candidates for the upcoming local elections this November.

Commissioner Roe’s statement seems to allude to another scandal lurking in the background. Last October, the county prothonotary resigned under a cloud of suspicion regarding financial irregularities in her office.

Todd Shepherd is Broad + Liberty’s chief investigative reporter. Send him tips at tshepherd@broadandliberty.com, or use his encrypted email at shepherdreports@protonmail.com. @shepherdreports