A Huntington Station woman was arrested and accused of stealing more than $143,000 from her employer while working for a company that provides services to children with developmental delays, county district attorney’s office said Tuesday.
Patricia Sales, 46, was arrested Monday and arraigned before Judge Lisa Petrocelli on one count of grand larceny in the second degree (a C felony). She was released on her own recognizance and is due back in court on June 14. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years.
The District Attrorney’s Office said Sales was employed as the director of finance for All About Kids, a company that serves children with developmental delays. As part of her duties, the defendant had access to the company’s payroll and accounting system for generating checks, as well as a stamp with the owner’s signature.
In February 2020, employees discovered several mailed notices from the Internal Revenue Service that indicated that the company had failed to pay payroll taxes to the IRS since at least June 2019. According to the documents, All About Kids owed more than $700,000 in past due taxes and $140,000 in penalties to the IRS. The defendant was terminated from her job on February 7, 2020.
After an extensive review of checks, bank statements, and accounting systems, the company discovered that Sales allegedly created unauthorized checks made out to herself in their accounting system. After discovering the alleged theft, the company notified the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office. In total, the defendant is alleged to have stolen $143,680 from All About Kids.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Erica Zimmerman of NCDA’s Financial Crimes Bureau. Sales is represented by Gregory Kalmar.