A crooked not-for-profit director broke down weeping and wailing as she was slapped with a 10-month sentence today for embezzling $54,000 in a scheme with links to mother-and-daughter Democratic pols from The Bronx.
Margarita Villegas — who amazingly still holds her job with the SBCC Management Corp. — turned to her husband with a panicked look and gasped for air after her punishment was imposed.
Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein said there were “too many examples in our society” of people abusing positions of trust and authority “to live a little better and a little more comfortably…and it has to be stopped.”
He also ordered Villegas to pay back the stolen money, along with a $3,000 fine.
Earlier, the 54-year-old mother of two said she had been disgraced and humiliated by her conviction, and tearfully begged for mercy with the promise that “this will never happen again.”
She later begged the judge to let her out of prison once a month to visit her ailing 85-year-old mom, but he said “I don’t know how that can be arranged.”
Prosecutor Rua Kelly said Villegas deserved to be tossed in the slammer for repeatedly pilfering federal funds earmarked for two low-income apartment buildings for the elderly and disabled.
Officials said she blew some of the loot on clothes, shoes and vacations, and also diverted $15,050 for campaign contributions and new office flooring for state Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, and summer interns for Arroyo and city Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, neither of whom have been charged.
City Department of Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn — whose office helped build the case against Villegas — said: “She chose to enrich herself over her duty as nonprofit director. This prison sentence is the price for that betrayal of trust.”