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Iris Gomez, aged 43, was arraigned on Monday, July 24 on charges including grand larceny for allegedly embezzling over $450,000 from churches in Seaford and Rockville Centre while she worked as a pastor’s assistant, according to the Nassau County District Attorney.
The scheme began in August 2018, the DA’s Office claimed.
Gomez was originally hired to be an assistant to a pastor at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre.
The DA’s Office said that during this time, Gomez’s job included both administrative and clerical support to multiple ministries.
Part of those responsibilities involved reviewing and ordering vocational materials to distribute at church events and ensuring that payments were made for these services.
From June 2019 to August 2019, while at the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Gomez allegedly presented multiple invoices for a company called GBL Media and Designs, which she claimed needed to be paid for promotional material the company designed and printed for the church.
However, the DA said, an investigation revealed that these invoices were fabricated, and GBL had never been hired for the Diocese.
Additionally, Gomez’s home address is the same address GBL is registered under. The checks paid to GBL were deposited into a business account that Gomez allegedly had sole control over.
During her time at the Rockville Centre church, Gomez is said to have embezzled $35,574.
A year into the job, she left the Diocese of Rockville Centre and followed the pastor to his new position, this time at St. William the Abbot Church in Seaford.
There, she continued her scheme.
From June 2019 to January 2022, Gomez purportedly continued to submit fake invoices on behalf of GBL for technological upgrades at the church.
She claimed that these had been approved by the pastor, though again, GBL had never actually been contracted to complete work at the Seaford church.
According to bank records, nearly 60 checks from the Seaford church were deposited into the GBL account (controlled by Gomez), totaling $427,140.
Gomez was fired in February 2022 and arrested in July of the same year.
At her indictment, she pleaded not guilty to the following charges:
- Grand larceny in the second and third degree (both felonies);
- Scheme to defraud (a felony);
- Criminal tax fraud in the third and fourth degree (both felonies); and
- Three counts of offering a false instrument for filing (a felony).
Gomez is due back in court on Friday, August 18.
If convicted, she faces up to three to 15 years in prison.
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