La Crémaillère Owner Arrested For Fraud, ID Theft

BANKSVILLE, NY — The owner of an upscale Westchester restaurant was arrested Tuesday on multiple fraud charges. Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Barbara Meyzen, 57, of Redding, Connecticut, was charged with identity theft and mail and wire fraud.

She is the owner and operator of La Crémaillère Restaurant in Banksville.

Meyzen, also known as Bobbie Meyzen, was arrested Tuesday in Connecticut.

Berman said that Meyzen's upscale clientele saw a stately French manor in a serene Westchester suburb when they dined there.

"What they did not see was the alleged rampant financial fraud that was happening," he said. "As a result of her alleged fraud, Barbara Meyzen has potentially earned herself a reservation for one in federal prison."

According to prosecutors Meyzen has owned La Crémaillère Restaurant since 1993.

From Aug. 2015 to July 2016, she submitted applications for credit on behalf of La Crémaillère Restaurant to at least nine lenders.

In support of those applications she gave the potential lenders La Crémaillère's bank statement that she had modified to change negative balances to positive ones. She also removed references to checks returned for insufficient funds.

For example, authorities said Meyzen changed a negative beginning balance or more than $32,800 to a positive beginning balance of $27,766.29.

When one lender found that Meyzen had altered the bank statements, she created an email account in the name of one of the bank's officers and sent the lender an email in which she, pretending to be the bank officer, told the lender that the statements were genuine, according to authorities.

Meyzen also forged a signature of a representative of the restaurant's second mortgage — who is Meyzen's relative by marriage — on a document that falsely stated the satisfaction of a mortgage, prosecutors said.

The false satisfaction of the mortgage was filed with the Westchester County Clerk, and she sent a copy of the filed satisfaction to the lender.

Meyzen later denied filing the mortgage when she was interviewed by the FBI, police said.

Throughout the summer of 2017, Meyzen charged more than $80,000 in food and restaurant supplies to one of the restaurant's customers who had left her credit card number on file at the restaurant, officials said.

When the customer discovered the charges, Meyzen claimed they were a mistake and repeatedly promised to resolve the problem. She gave the customer two checks totaling $32,000, but the checks bounced.

FBI agents said she denied, in an interview, knowing anything about the unauthorized charges, speaking to the customer and giving the customer checks.

Meyzen Family Realty Associates, LLC, which owns the property from which the restaurant operates, filed for bankruptcy in Sept. 2018. La Crémaillère Restaurant Corp., which operates the restaurant, filed for bankruptcy in April 2019.

Meyzen, who is part owner of both, misled the overseer of the bankruptcy case about insurance coverage on the restaurant and caused her bankruptcy counsel to give the overseer documents that falsely claimed the property was insured, authorities said.

Meyzen knew that coverage had been canceled because her broker had communicated with her several times about the cancellation, according to authorities.

Prosecutors said she falsely testified under oath in a deposition that she was not aware the insurance had been canceled.

Two days after La Crémaillère filed for bankruptcy in April 2019, Meyzen opened a bank account in her name and diverted more than $40,000 of the restaurant's credit card receipts to that account, authorities said.

She used a portion of that money to make payments to a food distributor and to an in-home nursing service. The account was closed on May 1.

On May 7, Meyzen opened an account in the name of Honey Bee Farm LLC at another bank and diverted La Crémaillère's credit card receipts, as well as $20,000 in advances on La Crémaillère's future credit card revenue, to that account.

She used a portion of that money to make a payment on Meyzen Family Realty's mortgage and to pay food distributors, two wine wholesalers, a commercial trash service, a tableware and china company and an employee of La Crémaillère.

Meyzen was charged with one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison; one count of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of credit card fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; two counts of making false statements, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and one count of concealing a debtor’s property, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

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