NHP woman charged with bilking charity

Richard Tedesco

 

A New Hyde Park woman has been charged with stealing more than $200,000 from her employer and an autism awareness foundation run by her boss’s wife.

Pamela Efraimov, 39, was arrested on Tuesday by Nassau County District Attorney investigators and charged with grand larceny in the second degree, criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, and falsifying business records in the first degree. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. 

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that from 2005 to 2012, Efraimov was employed as the personal assistant and bookkeeper to the president/owner of Katherine Bishop, Ltd., a woman’s apparel wholesaler. After her employer’s death in June 2010, his widow kept Efraimov on so she could close the books on the business. 

Efraimov also assisted the widow with the bookkeeping for The Nicholas Center for Autism and Spectrum Designs Foundation, a Port Washington-based non-profit organization the widow founded.

Rice said in September 2012 the widow noticed irregularities with cash deposits for the foundation and that checks written for Katherine Bishop bouncing. 

The widow confronted Efraimov about the financial irregularities and fired her in October 2012. An immediate audit discovered that Efraimov had instructed the bank to stop sending paper statements, and that she had altered 64 checks from January 2011 to September 2012 to hide that she had written the checks to herself, totaling more than $150,000, Rice said.

She said the audit further revealed that Efraimov had made unauthorized transfers from the Katherine Bishop account to her personal bank accounts totaling more than $10,000, forged the widow’s signature on 73 checks made out to Efraimov totaling more than $45,000, and used the Katherine Bishop account to make online payments to her personal credit cards. Efraimov also allegedly used the cash to purchase luxury goods, including Prada boots, Louis Vuitton handbags, and King Baby jewelry.

“Violating the trust of her employer is bad enough, but it is particularly appalling that this defendant victimized a grieving widow and a non-profit organization dedicated helping children with special needs,” Rice said. “For her deception and lies, all this defendant ended up with were some luxury accessories and a slew of felony of charges.” 

Assistant District Attorney Vickie Curran of the county DA’s Government and Consumer Frauds Bureau is prosecuting the case. Efraimov is represented by Robert Gallo.

Efraimov was arraigned in 1st District Court in Hempstead.

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