Prosecutors: Ex-supervisor at St. James HVAC firm allegedly stole over $400G

Suffolk County prosecutors have alleged that a former account supervisor for a prominent St. James HVAC company stole more than $400,000 from the manufacturer over a roughly six-year period.

Eleni Kalodis, 54, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, was arrested Wednesday and charged with grand larceny, according to court records. Kalodis had previously worked as a supervisor at Islandaire in St. James, according to prosecutors.

She pleaded not guilty the same day in Suffolk First District Court, according to records. Prosecutors said she was placed on supervised release and ordered to surrender her passport.

"I’ll have to call you back," said a woman who answered a phone number listed for Kalodis Thursday. She did not call back. A lawyer for Kalodis, Manhattan-based William Newman, did not respond to a request for comment.

In a news release Thursday, prosecutors alleged that Kalodis spent the money on restaurants, hotels, vacations and crypto currency purchases. Kalodis redirected purchase order credits that were payable to vendors who did business with Islandaire to her own accounts, according to the release. A spokeswoman for Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in an email that Kalodis' alleged thefts were uncovered because of complaints from the vendors. The spokeswoman said the alleged thefts were discovered soon after Kalodis left the company in December 2023.

"The alleged acts of this defendant illustrate an employee who exploited her position of trust to systematically steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer," Tierney said. "Trust is the foundation of which business and our economy thrive. Our office will continue to vigorously prosecute those who betray their professional responsibilities for personal gain."

An Islandaire receptionist said Thursday that the company would not comment. Islandaire’s website describes the company as the "fastest growing specialty air conditioning and heating manufacturer in North America" and lists jobs at large commercial sites in Florida, Texas and South Carolina.

In the early 2000s, Islandaire founder Robert Hansen bought and restored a working 180-foot replica of the 18th-century H.M.S. Bounty, a square-rigged tall ship that was featured in the 1962 Marlon Brando version of "Mutiny on the Bounty" and two "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels, mooring in Greenport Village.

In 2012, Newsday reported that the ship had foundered during Superstorm Sandy off the coast of North Carolina, killing one person and leaving one person missing. The ship’s insurer later sued Hansen to recover $5.1 million it paid out over the loss. In 2022, a federal judge found in favor of Hansen, according to court records.