Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and Anastasia Coleman, special commissioner of investigation for the New York City School District announced on Wednesday, Nov. 4, that a NYC public school employee, the employee’s husband, and another person have been charged with 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.”

 

Coleman said the fraud lasted over a period of years and drained M.S. 302, the Luisa Dessus Cruz School, located at 681 Kelly Street in Longwood, of tens of thousands of dollars earmarked for City students. “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,” she said. “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.”

 

Clark said the defendants, Rusnelly Clase, 40, of Yonkers, a community associate at M.S. 302, Clase’s husband, Justin Echevarria, 37, and Lisa Michelle Geraldino, 36, of Brooklyn, an acquaintance of Clase, were arraigned on Wednesday on a 296-count indictment by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Brenda Rivera. She said the defendants were released on a supervised basis and are due back in court in January.

 

The indictment charges Clase 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 are each charged with second-degree corrupting the government, second-degree grand larceny, and multiple counts of first-degree offering a false Instrument for filing, and first-degree and second-degree falsifying business records.

 

According to the investigation, from 2018 through February of 2022, Clase, a community coordinator for over ten years 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 New York City Department of Education (DOE).

 

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

 

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Robert F. Lindston and Zachary Reid of the Office of the Bronx District Attorney’s 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.

 

Clark thanked Julio Santiago, a Bronx DA forensic accountant, April Glenn, trial preparation assistant, Brendan Hammond, Bronx DA senior detective investigator, 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 Office of Payroll Administration at the New York City Financial Information Services Agency for their work on the case.

The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.