Prosecutors: Ex-school official David Ostrove, accused of stealing, tried to sell items government wants to seize

A former financial officer of a Long Island private school accused of stealing $8.4 million from the institution will be arraigned Wednesday on new charges after prosecutors said he attempted to sell collectible items subject to seizure by the government.

David Ostrove, 51, of West Islip, will appear in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Central Islip Wednesday on a charge of second-degree criminal contempt and three counts of unlawful disposition of assets subject to forfeiture.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Lightstone told state Supreme Court Justice John Collins on Tuesday that prosecutors have turned over to Ostrove’s attorneys “arrest paperwork, witness statements, a consignment contract and a list of 54 collectible items” they have recovered.

A list of those items filed in State Supreme Court Tuesday, obtained by Newsday, includes an 18th century document signed by George Washington with an estimated value of $13,000, a Cy Young signed baseball worth $9,750 and a John Wilkes Booth 1863 Playbill valued at $4,500. The items, which also include Olympic medals and signatures of dozens more former presidents and other historic political figures, were seized by the government from SMR Collectibles, a memorabilia shop in Amityville.

Prosecutors provided no additional details about the new allegations at Tuesday’s appearance. The hearing was to review Ostrove’s bail conditions in his grand larceny and money laundering case, in which he’s accused of diverting millions of dollars from Schechter School of Long Island in Williston Park into personal bank accounts and then using those funds to purchase rental properties on Fire Island and luxury vehicles, including a 1965 Ford Mustang.

The new allegations have placed Ostrove in what Collins called a “tangled case,” with two criminal actions underway at the same time as the ongoing civil forfeiture proceeding — the new contempt charges and his original grand larceny case.

On Tuesday, prosecutors asked that Ostrove be remanded to the county jail without bail following the new allegations, which were first raised before Collins in December. Ostrove has been free since posting $2 million bond soon after his arrest, but in December was ordered by Collins not to leave his property in West Islip with a GPS monitor.

Collins ordered that GPS monitoring be continued Tuesday, but he lifted the order restricting Ostrove to his home.

“Mr. Ostrove, in my humble opinion, should be very happy to walk out today,” Collins told the courtroom. “Tread lightly, sir. And listen to your lawyers.”

Lightstone said prosecutors will again request Ostrove be held without bail at Wednesday’s arraignment.

Speaking outside the courtroom with Ostrove at his side, defense attorney Bruce Barket of Garden City said his client denies the new allegations and said he’s confident those charges will be quickly dismissed.

“The items that they attached are not the same items that he consigned,” Barket said. “It was, I think, an honest mistake by [prosecutors].”

An attorney for Schechter School of Long Island, where Ostrove worked 11 years as chief financial and technological officer and director of operations, said Tuesday his employment was terminated when he was indicted last year. Several shell companies owned by Ostrove, which prosecutors said were used in the scheme, were also indicted on money laundering charges.