DA: Woman Steals More Than $316K From GN Employer

A Suffolk County woman has been charged with stealing more than $316,000 from a Great Neck contracting company, according to Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Onesta Reyes, 48, of West Babylon was arrested Thursday by Nassau investigators and charged with grand larceny in the second degree.

Rice said that between January 2011 and May 2012, Reyes embezzled a total of $316,639.40 in gross earnings and unearned reimbursements from her employer, a Great Neck-based contractor.

As bookkeeper, Reyes' duties included overseeing the payroll and billings. She used her access to payroll to inflate her 2011 yearly salary from $48,720 to $239,893, according to Rice.

Reyes allegedly reimbursed herself more than $89,000 for expenses between January 2011 and November 2011, when in fact she had none.

Reyes is accused of inflating her salary, creating fake employees, and reimbursing herself for phony expenses then using the money to fund shopping sprees on clothing, shoes, and jewelry.

Creating a second employee under the name “Onesta V. Reyes,” whose gross salary was $22,729 between October 2011 and December 2011, Reyes stole an additional $1,500 in phony expenses during that time period, and stole an additional $11,815 between April 2012 and May 2012, according to Rice.

“The notion that this defendant would steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer is bad enough, but to know that she used the money to add to her wardrobe is truly stunning,” Rice said. “Now she faces a criminal conviction and years in a prison cell for this abuse of her employer’s trust.”

The theft was discovered by an internal audit and referred to the Rice for investigation in May 2012.

Reyes was terminated in June 2012. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. 

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