Former Greenwich Woman Pleads Guilty to $700k Fraud

GREENWICH, CT—A former Greenwich woman pleaded guilty to stealing more than $700,000 from her employer, related companies and individuals.

Debra Biagi, 50, was an assistant to the chairman of HB Nitkin Group of Greenwich, a business that conducted real estate management and development, according to the U.S. Attorney District of Connecticut office.

From February 2014 to December 2015 Biagi defrauded the company, as well as key company individuals and members of their families who retained financial and banking information at the company.

She created fraudulent invoices made out to fictitious companies detailing charges for items such as masonry, carpentry, electrical and plumbing work. She then used victims’ checkbooks to make checks out to the fictitious companies, purportedly to pay the fraudulent invoices.

Sometimes Biagi would steal checks from employees of the company and make them out to cash or endorse checks that already listed a payee.

She faces a prison term of up to 20 years after pleading guilty to wire fraud.