The ousted former administrator of the Edgar Benjamin Healthcare Center has admitted to misusing federal funds given to the Mission Hill nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a plea agreement dated Feb. 4, Tony Francis admitted to misappropriating more than $43,600 in COVID-19-era relief funds directed to the almost 100-year-old long-term care facility for the attempted purchase of another nursing home and paying off a personal loan.

The federal charges, brought in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, deal exclusively with federal funds received by the Edgar Benjamin and misappropriated by Francis, who led the facility for 10 years. Separately, he faces a civil suit alleging a much broader range of misused and stolen funds.

In late March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis applied for and received a $159,900 loan for the Edgar Benjamin through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which the federal government uses to support nonprofits and small businesses when they face substantial economic injury. Funds through the program must be used for operations or regular expenses like paying for employee benefits, rent or utilities.

According to the charges brought against Francis by U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley, he used the loan for a $160,000 down payment in a bid to buy a defunct nursing home in New Britain, Connecticut.

The purchase was made by Francis as an individual, not in his capacity as administrator of the Edgar Benjamin.

When that sale fell through, Francis was refunded $135,671.50 — the down payment minus attorney’s fees — which he returned to the Edgar Benjamin’s account. The remaining $24,328.50 in funds from the federal loan made to the Edgar Benjamin were never returned.

The transaction was not — and could not have been, by the Small Business Administration’s rules — approved by the board of the Edgar Benjamin.

Later, in June 2023, Francis took out a personal loan of $100,000. Throughout that year and the next, he used Edgar Benjamin funds to make payments on the principal, interest and late fees for his loan. Those payments totaled $19,327.21.

Under the plea deal, Francis will pay back both the unreturned funds from the Small Business Administration loan and the payments made to pay off his personal loan — a total of $43,655.50.

Based on the charges, Francis also faces a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine and a period of supervised release.

The agreement comes as Francis also faces a civil suit by the court-appointed receivership that took over management of the facility. The same court decision forced Francis from his leadership role at the center amid allegations of financial mismanagement, which left the center in danger of closure.

In the lead up to the receivership, staff repeatedly went without wages. Vendors who served the facility also went unpaid, sometimes cutting off ties with the nursing home in response.

That suit, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court in March 2025, alleges Francis stole and embezzled over $3 million from the center during his 10-year stint as its administrator, including through improper charges on a company credit card and orchestrating fraudulent bonuses and vacation time.

The suit is aimed at recouping some of the center’s funds, said Roxbury attorney Joseph Feaster, the court-appointed receiver, when he announced the civil case last year. He added that the receivership also submitted information about Francis’ alleged financial dealings to state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Feaster declined to comment on the status of the civil suit, pending a hearing in the federal criminal case, scheduled for Feb. 25.

That suit is ongoing, but the Superior Court would like to see the case resolved before the receivership is set to end later this month, said Judge Christopher Belezos, who has overseen the receivership. The culmination of the receivership is set to follow the sale of the Edgar Benjamin to Allaire Health Services, a for-profit longterm-care operator, that is buying the facility and its operations in a $6.5 million deal.

The sale was expected to close at the start of February but was delayed pending due diligence work by Allaire. The New-Jersey-based company currently owns and operates 23 long-term care facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Feaster hopes the sale will close before the Edgar Benjamin receivership returns to court Feb. 24, in what is expected to be its final status conference before the receivership is slated to end.