Fraud orchestration allegations against a former finance director of New York University.
Ex-finance director of the institution allegedly stole funds to pay for a new pool at her residence.
An ex-director of finance at New York University was accused on Monday with planning a six-year fraud.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Cindy Tappe, 57, allegedly transferred $3.5 million meant for women- and minority-owned businesses and other programmes into bank accounts held by two shell companies she set up before using the funds to pay for personal and opulent expenses, including renovations to her Westport, Connecticut, home.Tappe is accused with grand theft, money laundering, presenting a fraudulent instrument, and fabricating financial records.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, our multilingual students and students with disabilities deserve top-notch services, and these dollars ought to have gone straight to their schools. Instead, we claim that an NYU director of finance utilised the money intended for student activities exclusively for personal advantage by renovating a home in Connecticut and purchasing a swimming pool with it.
NYU received a $23 million grant from the New York State Education Department to run a bilingual education programme and a programme to support special education. A portion of that money was intended for grants to businesses run by women and members of underrepresented groups.
Instead, the indictment claims that Tappe made arrangements for three certified women- and minority-owned business subcontractors to receive the vast majority of the subsidies. The three businesses received payments from NYU totaling about $3.527 million for services related to the grants. According to the indictment, the businesses submitted bogus invoices created by Tappe and placed on their letterhead as justification for the payments.According to court records, none of the businesses completed the work specified in the contracts. Instead, it is claimed that they served as pass-throughs, diverting the remaining $3.352 million to two bogus shell businesses that Tappe had established, High Galaxy, Inc. and PCM Group, Inc., while keeping between 3 and 6 percent of the invoice amounts as “overhead.”
The indictment stated that some of the money was then utilised to cover legal grant-related fees and to pay NYU staff members back for costs incurred or services done without any NYU scrutiny.Additionally, the indictment claims that Tappe stole at least $660,000 from the High Galaxy and PCM accounts and used it to cover her own needs. According to the indictment, she utilised the accounts to pay for her regular living expenditures as well as house improvements, including a new $80,000 swimming pool.According to Tom DiNapoli, the New York State Comptroller, “Cindy Tappe used her high-ranking position at NYU to shift more than $660,000 in state cash to corporations she controlled to maintain a luxury lifestyle.”Deborah Colson, her attorney, declined to comment.
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