Glenhead resident Anna Maria Restrepo, 59, was sentenced Thursday, April 27, to three to six years in prison for grand larceny, the Nassau County District Attorney announced.
Restrepo, also known as Anna Maria Saboski, has been stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club for almost all of her time working for the club.
Restrepo was hired as a bookkeeper and later promoted to office manager at the shipyard, according to the district attorney. As part of this role, she is responsible for record keeping and paying the club’s credit cards.
However, over the next seven years, she stole more than $600,000 from the club.
The conviction indicated that most of the theft was committed using two credit cards assigned to employees and PayPal, and she would transfer the fraudulent charges to her own personal PayPal account.
From January 2013 to February 2017, the two employee cards were linked to more than 460 unauthorized transfers of funds from Restrepo’s PayPal account, which she then transferred to her personal bank account or in her personal bank account. Spend on your PayPal debit card.
Restrepo even opened an Amex card in the name of the yacht club employee without his consent and a secondary account for herself, the DA reported.
Of the more than 880 transactions prosecutors allege Restrepo made using PayPal debit or Amex cards, several were made at resorts, casinos, grocery delivery services, Ticketmaster and even in Costa Rica.
To cover her actions, Restrepo altered and falsified club transactions to make them appear to be with legitimate club suppliers.
Despite Restrepo’s previous conviction for theft of more than $100,000 from a children’s day care center she managed, DA Anne T. Donnelly said “the defendant’s greed has only intensified.”
“… Now, she’s going to spend years in prison for her actions.”
Restrepo pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny.
In addition to her judgment, two civil judgments were issued: one for $608,886 on behalf of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club and one for $14,449 on behalf of American Express.
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