Former assistant dean sentenced to 36 months in prison for million-dollar embezzlement from Essex County graduate school

Date: Dec. 6, 2024

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Newark, NJ - A former assistant dean of an Essex County graduate school was sentenced yesterday to 36 months in prison for defrauding her former employer of more than $1.3 million, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Teresina DeAlmeida of Warren, New Jersey and her co-conspirators, Rose Martins of East Hanover, New Jersey, and Silvia Cardoso of Warren, NJ, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals in Newark federal court.

"The defendant abused her position of trust as an assistant dean to orchestrate an elaborate embezzlement scheme for more than a decade. In doing so, she and her co-conspirators stole more than $1.3 million intended to benefit the school and its students. My office is committed to relentlessly prosecuting those who commit financial frauds."

U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger

"By choosing to utilize her position for illicit profit, Teresina DeAlmeida chose to enrich herself first and serve the students of the University last," stated Jenifer L. Piovesan, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Newark Field Office. "Financial fraud like this will not be tolerated and IRS Criminal Investigation will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to root out and investigate these financial crimes."

"Trust is an intangible thing, a faith that people who have access to large sums of money won't steal it. DeAlmeida took funds meant for students at the university and did so for more than a decade," FBI Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Nelson I. Delgado said. "Students and most average citizens cannot see into finances of institutions, to question where it's going and why it's missing. The FBI Newark and our law enforcement partners have the tools to investigate wrongdoing and hold accountable those who don't think anyone will notice $1.3 million is missing."

"I am proud of the contribution of OIG Special Agents in holding former Assistant Dean DeAlmeida accountable for her criminal actions. Her willful diversion and theft of funds that were intended for the school and its students was completely unacceptable," said John Carlo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General's Eastern Regional Office. "The OIG will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of Federal education funds."

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Between 2009 and July 2022, DeAlmeida, Martins, and Cardoso conspired to fraudulently misappropriate more than $1.3 million from their former employer, a graduate school of a university in Essex County, New Jersey. During the scheme, DeAlmeida was an assistant dean responsible for financial functions, and Martins served as her assistant. Cardoso, DeAlmeida's sister, was also employed by the graduate school in a support staff role.

The defendants used a variety of methods to defraud the university. For instance:

• Beginning in 2009, DeAlmeida directed a graduate school vendor to pay Martins and Cardoso as though they worked for the vendor, even though they did not perform any services. DeAlmeida and Martins then caused the vendor to submit false invoices to the graduate school over the course of approximately four years to reimburse the vendor for the amounts fraudulently paid to Martins and Cardoso.
• From 2010 through 2022, DeAlmeida and Martins directed graduate school vendors to order hundreds of thousands of dollars of gift cards and prepaid debit cards the co-conspirators used for their personal benefit, and then to submit fraudulent invoices to the school purporting to be for goods and services that were never provided. The co-conspirators also misused DeAlmeida's school-issued credit card to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars of gift cards and prepaid debit cards from the school's bookstore. DeAlmeida routinely fraudulently approved these charges and Martins forged the signatures of other employees on internal approvals.
• In 2015, Martins opened a shell entity called CMS Content Management Specialist LLC. Although CMS never rendered any services to the graduate school, Martins submitted, and DeAlmeida approved, fraudulent invoices totaling more than $208,000.
• The co-conspirators also used DeAlmeida's school-issued credit card to make tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized personal purchases. For example, DeAlmeida and Martins used the card to make over $70,000 in purchases at an online retailer shipped directly to their homes, including woman's shoes, smart watches, and bed linens. DeAlmeida and Martins fraudulently altered certain receipts before submitting them to the school for payment.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Neals sentenced DeAlmeida to 2 years of supervised release and ordered restitution of approximately $1,397,000.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan in Newark; special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Nelson I. Delgado in Newark; and special agents of the Department of Education, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge John Carlo with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carolyn Silane and Aja Espinosa of the Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.