March 3, 2024
An academic equity official has pleaded guilty to embezzling millions from New York University and using the money for personal expenses and an $80,000 pool at her luxe Connecticut home from funds that were supposed to go to women and minority businesses. Cindy Tappe, 57, pleaded guilty Monday, according to Manhattan prosecutors. After stealing the funds, she landed a new job as operations director at the Yale School of Medicine. The Ivy League school fired her after the charges became public.
Additional : 4/26/2024
The former finance director at New York University who committed $3.5 million worth of fraud targeting minority and women-owned businesses has been sentenced to five years probation.
Cindy Tappe, of Westport, used her position at the Manhattan school to divert money intended for businesses with the fraudulent scheme.
The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to grand larceny on February 26 and has paid back $663,209 in restitution, with the final check for $180,000 received on Friday ahead of her court appearance. Tappe's defense attorney Deborah Colson previously said her client has accepted responsibility, 'strongly regrets her misconduct' and planned to pay the required restitution in full prior to her sentencing. (But she did not.)
Commenters noted that even if she pays everything back, she received an interest fee loan. Why no penalty? She stole money. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13354659/NYU-finance-director-Cindy-Tappe-sentenced-five-years-probation-fraud.html
Feb. 7, 2024
Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that a federal jury has found Shirin Marshall (55, Tampa) guilty of four counts of mail fraud. Marshall faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each count. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 30, 2024. A grand jury had returned an indictment against Marshall on February 24, 2022.
According to the testimony and evidence presented at trial, in August 2000, Marshall claimed a back and shoulder injury while working as a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier. In July 2001, she filed a subsequent claim related to workplace stress. Marshall later began receiving disability benefits and wage compensation from the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Program (“DOL-OWCP”) mailed to her in monthly checks. An investigation by the U.S. Postal Service - Office of Inspector General revealed that Marshall concealed her physical capabilities, emotional state, and employment activities from the DOL-OWCP to continue receiving federal workers’ compensation benefits. Marshall also misrepresented her true medical condition to her treating physicians and made false representations on forms she annually submitted to DOL-OWCP. As result of Marshall’s fraudulent scheme, the DOL-OWCP provided her at least $500,000 in wage compensation she was not entitled to receive.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service - Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Greg Pizzo.
Feb 1, 2024 Experienced Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Violates Law
A man described as an “experienced anti-money laundering specialist” pleaded guilty on Wednesday to illegally funneling more than $1 billion in lucrative, high-risk transactions through small financial institutions, the U.S. Department of Justice said. The massive transfer, which included hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign jurisdictions, occurred without proper oversight and without any Suspicious Activity Reports being filed, as the law requires, the DOJ said. The man, 56-year-old Gyanendra Asre of Greenwich, Connecticut, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced May 3.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, meanwhile, on Wednesday assessed a $100,000 civil penalty on Asre and banned him from participating in any financial institution’s affairs for five years. “Asre was an experienced anti-money laundering specialist well-versed in the Bank Secrecy Act’s provisions and deliberately ignored these protections, exposing financial institutions to the risk of illicit criminal activity,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a press release. The scheme occurred from 2014 to 2016, when Asre was a member of the supervisory board of the New York State Employees Federal Credit Union, which the DOJ called a “small, unsophisticated” financial institution.
He had previously been employed as a senior vice president at a domestic bank, and was “experienced in international banking and trained in anti-money laundering compliance and procedures,” the DOJ said. Asre “represented to the NYSEFCU that he and his businesses would conduct appropriate anti-money laundering oversight as required by the Bank Secrecy Act,” according to the DOJ. Based on that, the NYSEFCU allowed Asre to conduct high-risk transactions, and he subsequently steered more than $1 billion through it and other entities.
Some of that money allegedly came from Mexican banks, which are not named in an indictment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. But “contrary to his representations, Asre willfully failed to implement and maintain an anti-money laundering program at the NYSEFCU,” the DOJ said. “This failure caused the NYSEFCU to process the high-risk transactions without appropriate oversight and without ever filing a single Suspicious Activity Report, as required by law,” according to the DOJ. The National Credit Union Administration liquidated the NYSEFCU in October 2017 after finding “significant deficiencies” in the credit union’s regulatory compliance, according to FinCEN’s consent order with Asre.
Asre’s actions “were a major contributing factor to the dissolution” of the credit union, the consent order said. Erin Keegan, the acting special agent-in-charge at the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative division in New York, said Asre was specifically trained in the right procedures and “took advantage of a small New York financial institution.”
“I commend HSI New York and our law enforcement partners for their dedication to ensuring vitally integral regulations — the foundation of our banking system — are upheld,” Keegan said.
Nov 4, 2023 Durham County Employee Steals Co-worker's Retirement Benefits
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A now-former Durham County employee has been arrested and charged with stealing Investigators believe Blake contacted Empower, a company contracted to administer employee retirement benefits, and pretended to be nine different employees on 16 separate occasions between August 2019 and January 2023. One account was for a deceased person. Blake then submitted Hardship Withdrawal Requests and transferred more than $18,000 from the accounts to herself.
Deputies said the withdrawals were initially flagged by Empower which conducted an internal investigation. During their investigation, Blake allegedly attempted to continue the scheme but the transactions were denied.
Blake was arrested Friday and charged with nine counts of ID theft, nine counts of accessing computers, eight counts of forgery of instrument, six counts of obtaining property false pretense. She is being held under a $20,000 secured bond.more than $18,000 from employee 401k accounts. According to the Durham County Sheriff's Office, Durham County administrators told investigators about an employee suspected of fraudulently accessing funds in county retirement accounts. Deputies said at the time of the incident, Tiffany Diane Blake, 40, of Durham, was an employee in the Social Services Department of Durham County.
https://abc11.com/durham-employee-charged-theft-retirement-accounts/14010167/p
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