A lawyer's office manager has been indicted on charges of stealing some $1.2 million from the firm, a theft the lawyer discovered only after he learned he had been disbarred, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Friday.
Carol Ruiz, 44, of Brooklyn, was charged with first-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery and falsifying business records. Grand larceny, the indictment's top count, is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
Morgenthau said Ruiz worked for Nathan L. Dembin & Associates for about seven years, controlling virtually all of Dembin's finances and administrative matters. She screened all calls, sorted all mail and prepared all bills to be paid, he said.
For three years, Morgenthau said, Ruiz used a stamp to forge Dembin's signature and transfer some $1.2 million to herself and her husband. During that time, he said, she forged checks worth $100,000 to rent a vehicle she could have bought for $30,000.
Dembin discovered the thefts when he learned he had been briefly disbarred for failing to respond to an inquiry from the State Supreme Court's Appellate Division, Morgenthau said. After finding that Ruiz had signed the receipts for the registered mail from the court, Dembin began an audit that revealed more than $1 million missing.
Details here from New York Daily News. (via Small Town Lawyer)