Richmond homeless shelter director pleads guilty to stealing nearly $1 million in government funds

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A Richmond woman pled guilty to wire fraud on Tuesday after the city gave her nearly $1 million to operate a homeless shelter geared toward women and children.

According to court documents, 41-year-old Kia Player won a grant to operate the inclement weather shelter RVA Sister's Keeper in 2022, and ended up obtaining $995,000 in governmental funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as well as the city.

Player, while acting as director of the shelter, fabricated and falsified a minimum of 35 separate invoices from August 2022 through April 2023 for costs allegedly paid to assist the shelter and its residents, per court documents.

In actuality, Player never used the money for RVA Sister's Keeper, and would submit the fraudulent invoices for reimbursement, resulting in funds being disbursed to Player improperly from the city of Richmond.

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Player instead spent the money on personal expenses, which included a tattoo, airline tickets and a luxury Caribbean ferry ride in Miami Beach -- all while causing $199,163 in actual losses to the city and HUD.

Another example of misused funds includes at least 21 separate inflated invoices claiming RVA Sister's Keeper made payments to "VCM Catering Services" to provide meals to the shelter.

VCM Catering Services was found to be a fake business, and Player had hired her own mother -- a cafeteria manager at a Richmond public school -- and would provide residents at RVA Sister's Keeper with food from the school's cafeteria.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Player on Feb. 25, 2026, as she may face up to 20 years in prison.