A trusted and long-serving bookkeeper brought her Queens company to “the brink of bankruptcy” by methodically embezzling at least $2.3 million – a stunning repeat of a crime she committed 14 years ago, authorities said.
Every single week between November 2000 and June 2002, Maria Villa, 48, skimmed amounts ranging from $2,000 to $23,000 and had the money wired into her private Chase bank account, according to court papers.
The elevator-maintenance company – P.S. Marcato Elevator in Long Island City – discovered the crime when it found itself going broke and hired an outside accountant to check its books.
The accountant found the glaring discrepancies and alerted the Queens District Attorney’s Office, which confirmed the company’s findings and arrested Villa on Wednesday.
Villa was charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records. She faces 25 years in jail.
“She used her position as a trusted insider to falsify employee payroll and expense account reports,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.
At Villa’s arraignment yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Peri Kadanoff said the embezzlement has been going on for more than two years and may involve even more money.
“The company is on the brink of bankruptcy because of this theft,” Kadanoff said, adding that Villa has confessed to investigators that she committed the crime.
Kadanoff asked for $1 million bail, but Judge Suzanne Melendez ordered Villa held without bail. Villa’s lawyer, Adam Thompson, had argued for no bail because the East Elmhurst resident has “strong ties” to the community and is caring for an “elderly mother.”
Thompson also claimed that “other people who had access to the [company] records” are involved in the scam.