A Floral Park bookkeeper plead guilty Tuesday to charges that she stole about $467,000 by forging checks from Great Neck and Mineola companies where she worked.
Deborah Tangredi, 53, is expected to get a one-year prison sentence on one count of second-degree grand larceny and two counts of third-degree grand larceny, the Nassau County district attorney’s office said.
“Small businesses are an integral part of our local economy and should never have to worry about their staffers lining their pockets with company money,” District Attorney-elect Madeline Singas said in a statement.
Upon closing in 2013, the Great Neck mortgage lender and realtor that employed Tangredi for 17 years conducted an internal audit that found she used company bank accounts to make car payments and pay American Express and Citibank credit card bills.
A DA’s office investigation found Tangredi had altered more than 100 checks to steal more than $450,000 since 2009.
Tangredi would then alter the company’s check register to say the checks were paid to people with whom it would do business, the DA’s office said.
Investigators also found she stole more than $17,000 from her new employer, a Mineola law firm, by forging signatures on checks and tampering with the company’s ledger and bank statements.
Tangredi is expected to pay the Great Neck company $405,000 in restitution around Dec. 18, the DA’s office said. $25,000 of the company’s loss was covered by its insurer, and the other $24,500 will come from Tangredi’s bail once it’s exonerated.
The DA’s office said she has already paid back about $17,000 to the Mineola law firm.
Tangredi’s lawyer, Mineola-based Robert Schalk, said the guilty plea was the result of a plea agreement with the DA’s office and the courts.
“My client expressed her remorse and has paid back all parties to the satisfaction of the court, the DA and of the victims,” Schalk said.
Tangredi is due back in county Supreme Court Feb. 24, when Justice Meryl Berkowitz will issue her sentence.
