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Bronx resident Susana Rivera, age 40, the former Director of Accounting and Human Resources for a kitchen remodeling firm located in Westchester and Fairfield County, with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with her alleged embezzlement of more than $550,000 from her employer.
US Attorney Damian Williams said that beginning in October 2019, Rivera was hired at a family-owned kitchen design and remodeling business that functioned out of Mamaroneck and Bedford in Westchester and Greenwich in Fairfield County.
It is alleged that beginning in November that year, Rivera made hundreds of unauthorized charges in a total amount exceeding $175,000 to the company’s credit cards for personal expenses, including jewelry, beauty treatments, laser treatments, travel, pets, cosmetic surgery, clothing, and cars, including a partial payment on a $100,000 Corvette.
Rivera also allegedly caused the company’s payroll company to make unauthorized payments in total of more than $370,000 to a fake vendor that Rivera created to receive the cash.
According to the indictment, Rivera also caused unauthorized transfers from the victim company’s bank account in an amount exceeding $2,900 to pay her personal utility bills.
Williams said that to get restrictions on the use of the company’s credit cards removed, Rivera posed as an owner of the victim company in telephone calls with the company’s credit card company, and sending the credit card company photographs of the actual owner’s driver’s license to perpetuate the scheme.
“Susana Rivera abused the trust her employer placed in her by stealing more than $500,000 in hundreds of individual thefts over 22 months,” Williams said. “She stole and used her employer’s identity to further her scheme. She will now be held accountable for her thefts.”
Rivera was charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted on the top charge she faces up to 20 years in prison. No return court date has been announced.
“No more than one month after joining the company she allegedly defrauded, Susana Rivera started down a path of embezzlement that would eventually result in more than half a million dollars in losses to her victim,” FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll said.
“Spending this money on a variety of luxury and personal items, she jumped headfirst into this scheme with seemingly no signs of slowing down—until we showed up to levy the charge. Financial fraud schemes wreak havoc on private businesses and the economy alike. Any attempt to defraud a victim in this way will most certainly be met with consequences in our justice system.”
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