Nassau Woman Gets 3 To 6 Years For Siphoning $600K From Yacht Club: Prosecutors

MINEOLA, NY — A Glen Head woman was sentenced Thursday to three to six years in prison for siphoning over $600,000 from an Oyster Bay yacht club through PayPal and American Express to make unauthorized purchases from retailers like PeaPod, Ticketmaster, and the Tropicana Casino & Resort, prosecutors said.

Anna Maria Restrepo, 59, pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny in January.

She was given a civil judgment order for $608,886 on behalf of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, as well as a civil judgment order for $14,449 on behalf of American Express. She waived her right to appeal the plea and sentence.

Restrepo was hired as a boatyard bookkeeper for the yacht yard in March 2009, and later as boatyard office manager, with her responsibilities including handling record-keeping and the payment of the club’s credit card, prosecutors said.

Her duties were limited to purchasing office supplies, as all boatyard inventory was purchased directly by the yacht's shipstore clerk, according to prosecutors.

She stole over $600,000 from the yacht club, mostly using credit card numbers belonging to two yacht club employees between 2010 and 2017, prosecutors said.

Restrepo initiated fraudulent credit card charges using PayPal and then directed the funds to her own personal PayPal account, prosecutors said.

From January 2013 to February 2017, the credit cards assigned to the two employees were involved in over 460 unauthorized fund transfers to Restrepo's PayPal account, according to prosecutors.

She also made unauthorized charges at various restaurants and retail stores, prosecutors said.

To hide her illegal conduct, Restrepo also falsified yacht club business records and altered transactions to give the appearance that they were payments made to legitimate vendors, prosecutors said.

The falsifications allowed her "scheme" to go on undetected for several years, according to prosecutors.

Between 2013 and 2017, funds that were fraudulently transferred into the defendant’s PayPal account were disbursed using a PayPal Debit Card over 880 times, including withdrawals and transactions that took place in Costa Rica, Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel in Niagara Falls, and Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, prosecutors said.

Withdrawals were also made in Glen Cove, Glen Head, and Oyster Bay, according to prosecutors.

There were other transfers from Restrepo's PayPal account directly into a bank account that she controlled, prosecutors said.

In July 2016, Restrepo also opened an American Express card in the name of a yacht club employee without his permission or consent, and a supplemental account in her own name, according to prosecutors.

From August 2016 through February 2017, she also used the cards to make numerous unauthorized purchases for tens of thousands of dollars over the Internet to fund her PayPal account and to retailers like PeaPod, Ticketmaster, and the Tropicana Casino & Resort, prosecutors said.

She was arrested by members of the Nassau County Police Department in March 2017.

Restrepo, who is also known as "Anna Maria Saboski," is a second felony offender, having previously convicted of first-degree falsifying business records in May 2009. In that case, she stole over $100,000 while working as a fiscal manager at Glen Cove Child Day Care.

She was sentenced to a conditional discharge.

Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Restrepo was "entrusted with the club’s credit cards" and "exploited that unique access to siphon $600,000 of club funds into her own bank accounts" and then "used the money for personal expenses and made withdrawals at several casinos and resorts."

“The defendant was previously convicted for a similar fraud scheme just months after she began working for the yacht club," she said. "Instead of starting fresh the defendant’s greed only intensified, and now she will spend years in prison as a result of her actions.”

Her attorney, John Maccarone of Glen Cove, could not be immediately reached for comment.