Results tagged “grandlarceny”

What is it with Saks Fifth Avenue employees? Earlier this year there was the ol' "it was for charity" excuse, which was prequeled by all of these incidents. Now another employee has been busted for siphoning around $130,000 from his employer. 23-year-old Kashien Mercer is the latest to use the store as his personal ATM; too bad he was "caught on surveillance video behind a cash register crediting some of the illegal returns to the gift card, which he put in his pocket." He was busted on November 3rd and charged with grand larceny. Listen up Saks employees, your employer is on to you, it's time to try another department store.

Ah, remember the Chase bank "fraud broad," who was busted back in July for siphoning over $100K from a millionaire's private account, then blowing it on shopping, partying, and rent? We kind of did forget, then the photo brought us right back. Yesterday, 26-year-old Robin Katz pleaded guilty to grand larceny committed during her time as a financial adviser at JPMorgan Chase. So will they throw the book at the buxom embezzler?

After a 19 week long trial, a jury has found Anthony Marshall guilty on one count of first-degree grand larceny related to stealing the $200 million fortune of his late mother, the philanthropist Brooke Astor. The NY Times notes, "Barring an appeal, the jury’s verdict means that [Marshall], an 85-year-old war veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, can be sentenced to anywhere from 1 to 25 years behind bars."

The Nassau County DA's office says that Kevin Cohen of Roslyn charged numerous couples expensive fees—one couple says they paid Cohen $65,000— to adopt children that probably never existed. Now, with 16 couples (and counting) claiming they were duped, it's being characterized as an adoption Ponzi scheme.

With their usual smorgasbord of awful, breakfast-related puns, the Post is reporting (with a "It's scam and eggs" headline) on an expensive scam that went on at the Belvedere Hotel on West 48th Street. Mary Comis, the 62-year-old controller of the hotel amassed $208,000 over three years by scamming patrons through the hotel's breakfast specials. The hotel had two specials for guests: The American Breakfast priced at $19.95, and a Continental Breakfast at $13.95. While calculating the large breakfast totals, Comis would charge the $6 difference to herself, meaning "she would have had to pull the scam roughly 34,699 times." The amounts she charged were so small that nobody caught on until recently. She's expected to serve 300 hours of community service, and is currently paying all of the money back to the Belvedere. Too bad, otherwise it would have been a parfait crime. (Your move, Post.)

Just because a bank makes a mistake doesn't mean you get to benefit: A Long Island man was arrested for refusing to give up the $11,270 accidentally deposited into his Capital One account. Newsday reports that Carlos Morales' account was "mistakenly credited"—which really means "A bank teller had erroneously deposited these funds." Morales withdrew the money over a five-month period and Nassau County's Crimes Against Property Squad said even though Capitol One "contacted the defendant on numerous occasions asking the defendant to return the funds," Morales didn't respond. He is now charged with grand larceny. Also, if the ATM "accidentally" gives you more money than it should, report it and return it or you could faces charges.

A new variation on the apartment rent in cash scam: The NY Post reports a woman was swindled out of $100,000 (meant for two apartments at 410 West 53rd Street) by the broker she met on Craigslist who "legitimately rented her a different Manhattan home two weeks before." Ah, the ol' reel them in and then scam them. The client says broker Leif Lopez showed her the apartments, which she planned to sublet to tourists. She signed contracts and paid in cash--because he said "he would give me a huge deal on the apartments"--but then Lopez never gave her the keys. Lopez, charged with grand larceny, is currently being held on $7,500 bail. The victim says, "I've been depressed since this happened to me. I lost all the money I had."

The Queens DA's office says an Astoria landlord apparently stole his tenant's identity in order to rack up $50,000 worth of purchases. The Daily News says Jorgji Glekas went to the police after getting bills from credit card "accounts she hadn't opened - then grew suspicious when [landlord Phivos] Ioannou asked if she had received any mail that didn't belong to her." Ioannou used his tenant's name and Social security number to buy numerous items, including a BMW (with a $32,000 loan) on a Visa with Glekas's name. (He even reportedly Ioannou made one payment on the car, with a check signed by "Ioannou Phivos.") The landlord, who denies the charges, faces 15 years in prison if found guilty. Here are identity theft prevention tips (PDF) from the NYPD.

Illegally renting subleased apartments as hotel rooms is nothing new, but Raziel Ofer, who "controlled hundreds of units at swanky uptown addresses" (at Woogo.com), was caught by Manhattan prosecutors because he never paid over $1 million in sales tax to the city and state. D'oh! He also apparently "evaded up to $2 million in other fees"; Ofer pleaded guilty and now faces between 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison. Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau groused, "Illegal hotels are getting to be a major problem."

This is any credit (or debit) card user's worst nightmare: Dan Kaufman, who manages Blue Pig ice cream, Oven pizza, Busy Chef and Wine Bar in Brooklyn Heights, was arrested for taking $25,000 from customers' credit cards. According to the Post, Kaufman would take "credit card slips from Wine Bar and Oven, and then ran them through again at his Busy Chef stores and an outlet on Court Street, pocketing the dough." Kaufman surrendered yesterday and Brooklyn Heights Blog reports the charges include various counts of identity theft and grand larceny. And remember: ALWAYS check your credit card statements.

Marc Jacobs, who is no angel himself, had a questionable employee managing one of his three stores in the Village. The NY Post reports that 24-year-old Kyle Avila stole approximately $62K from the designer in just 18 months. Gawker notes that the Kansas boy also once posed nude for a Jacobs t-shirt (pictured), so maybe he just felt he was due.

The Brooklyn resident whose name caused him $2.1 million of trouble is still being held at Rikers, but a judge lowered his bail from $1 million to $10,000.

If a bank teller told you had an unknown bank account with $5.8 million in it and the bank insisted it's yours, wouldn't you spend it? That's what Brooklyn resident Benjamin Lovell did - and now he's paying.

It's one thing to believe the the supernatural. It's another to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a storefront psychic. But that's what happened to a stock trader when he came into contact with Tammy Mitchell, who ran a fortune telling business in Midtown.

A doctor who practices in NJ with admitting privileges at New York Presbyterian Hospital. His 94-year-old mother. Her $832,453 savings. And a wall collapse in Upper Manhattan. In a case Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau called "a mini-Astor case," Dr. Robin Motz was accused of stealing his mother's savings since 2003.

An ex-husband and other acquaintances have been sharing their experiences with the two women accused of robbing open houses in Manhattan and NJ. After a rash of robberies sparked fear in home sellers - and their brokers - the police caught the suspects and Jessica Joyner and Jennifer Jones have pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and other charges related to at least four robberies on the Upper East and West Sides, and will be...

The Department of Education is charging a temp with stealing $50,000 in fake overtime. The tip off? When Tyrone Avila would claim he was working 85 hours a week - when he really supposed to work less than 40 hours a week. The Daily News reports that Avila had been temping as budget analyst for the DOE since 2001, but "he didn't start padding his time sheets until 2005 when his mother-in-law developed mental problems...