Westchester Couple Accused Of Stealing $173K From A Bronx School

YONKERS, NY — A Yonkers couple is accused of heartlessly embezzling from New York City schoolchildren.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and Special Commissioner of Investigation for the NYC School District Anastasia Coleman announced that a NYC public school employee, her husband and the employee's friend have been indicted on corruption, grand larceny and fraud charges for stealing over $173,000 from a Bronx middle school's funds.

"While working at Middle School 302 in Longwood, the defendant allegedly stole much-needed funds from the school in a fraud scheme that lasted four years, enriching herself, her husband, and her friend," Clark said. "It is unconscionable that they would deprive children in this way."

The district attorney said that 40-year-old Rusnelly Clase and her husband, 37-year-old Justin Echevarria, both of Yonkers, and 36-year-old Lisa Michelle Geraldino, of Brooklyn, were arraigned on Wednesday on a 296-count indictment by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Brenda Rivera. They were released on supervised release and are due back in court on January 28.

According to prosecutors, from 2018 through February of 2022, Clase, a community coordinator for over a decade at MS 302, the Luisa Dessus Cruz School in Longwood, who had access to the school's procurement and accounting systems, allegedly used her position to register each of her co-conspirators as a non-contracted vendor for the NYC Department of Education.

Over the course of around four years, Clase allegedly filed several fraudulent vendor invoices, along with falsified purchase orders for "swag" clothing such as sweatshirts, shorts, t-shirts, and jackets. She then allegedly used unauthorized access to approve the invoices and trigger the payment of over $90,000 of funds to Echevarria and over $75,000 to Geraldino. The co-conspirators allegedly "kicked back" a portion of the money to Clase. Ultimately, no items were ever delivered.

Clase was charged with first degree corrupting the government, second degree grand larceny, public corruption, and multiple counts of first degree offering a false instrument for filing, first degree falsifying business records, and second degree forgery.

Echevarria and Geraldino were each charged with second degree corrupting the government, second degree grand larceny, and multiple counts of first degree offering a false instrument for filing, along with first degree and second degree falsifying business records.

"As alleged, this fraud, over a period of years, drained MS 302 of tens of thousands of dollars earmarked for City students," Coleman said. "There can be no place in our society for those who would brazenly steal the limited resources allocated for our students and their families, and there can be no tolerance for this type of fraud within the New York City school system. I would like to thank our partners at the Bronx DA’s office, especially those from the Financial Frauds Bureau, for their efforts and assistance in this matter."

The district attorney thanked BXDA Forensic Accountant Julio Santiago, Trial Preparation Assistant April Glenn, BXDA Senior Detective Investigator Brendan Hammond, Detective Investigator Randy Scarpinato, Lieutenant Vincent Cantarella, Peter Holness, Deputy Chief of Detective Investigators and Frank Chiara, Chief of Detective Investigators for their work on the case. She also thanked SCI Investigator Daniel Sullivan, SCI Chief Investigator Michael Bisogna, SCI Special Counsel Valerie Batista, Department of Education General Counsel Elizabeth Vladeck, and the New York City Financial Information Services Agency – Office of Payroll Administration for their work on the case.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Robert F. Lindston and Zachary Reid of the Financial Frauds Bureau, under the supervision of Eugene Bykov, Supervisor of the Financial Frauds Bureau, Michelle Milanes, Deputy Chief of the Financial Frauds Bureau, and Herman Wun, Chief of the Financial Frauds Bureau, and under the overall supervision of Denise Kodjo, Deputy Chief of the Investigations Division, and Wanda Perez-Maldonado, Chief of the Investigations Division.