Woman who stole $600G from Oyster Bay yacht club gets up to 6 years in prison, prosecutors say
The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club on Centre Island. Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas
A Glen Head woman was sentenced Thursday to up to 6 years in prison for stealing more than $600,000 from an Oyster Bay yacht club over a seven-year span as she served as the facility's bookkeeper and later its boatyard office manager, Nassau County prosecutors said.
Anna Maria Restrepo, 59, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree grand larceny. In addition to her prison term, County Court Judge Teresa Corrigan ordered Restrepo to repay $608,886 to the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club and $14,449 to American Express.
“Entrusted with the club’s credit cards, this defendant exploited that unique access to siphon $600,000 of club funds into her own bank accounts and used the money for personal expenses and made withdrawals at several casinos and resorts,” said Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly in a statement. “The defendant was previously convicted of a similar fraud scheme just months after she began working for the yacht club. Instead of starting fresh the defendant’s greed only intensified, and now she will spend years in prison as a result of her actions.”
In 2009, Restrepo was convicted of first-degree falsifying business records after she stole more than $100,000 while working as a manager at Glen Cove Child Day Care. She was sentenced to a conditional discharge and did not serve prison time.
Kevin Maccarone, Restrepo's Glen Cove-based defense attorney, declined to comment.
Restrepo, who was hired in 2009 as a boatyard bookkeeper for the Centre Island yacht club, and later promoted to boatyard office manager, handled record-keeping and payment of the club's credit cards, prosecutors said. Her purchasing authority was limited to office supplies, officials said.
Between 2010 and 2017, Restrepo stole more than $600,000 from the club, prosecutors said, including more than 460 unauthorized fund transfers to her PayPal account using credit card numbers belonging to two facility employees.
Restrepo made unauthorized charges in Costa Rica, the Seneca Casino Hotel in Niagara Falls, Turning Stone Resort in upstate Verona, and at various restaurants and retail stores, officials said.
In 2016, she opened an American Express card in the name of another yacht club employee without his permission, along with a supplemental account in her own name, records show. Restrepo used these cards to make unauthorized purchases online and at retailers such as Peapod, Ticketmaster and the Tropicana Casino & Resort, prosecutors said.
To hide her crimes, Restrepo falsified club business records and altered transactions to give the appearance that they were payments made to legitimate vendors, officials said. She was arrested in 2017.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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