authorities said.<\/a><\/p>\nAmong devious schemes, Cenci disguised expenditures as payments to vendors for purchases never made, and collected duplicate payments for legitimate purchases, court documents allege.<\/p>\n
Michele Cenci, the former purchasing secretary at PS 21 in Staten Island, pleaded guilty to stealing more than $145,000 in school funds to \u201cline her own pockets,\u201d investigators said. Obtained by the New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cStealing nearly $150,000 in school funds from one of Staten Island\u2019s beloved elementary schools, Michele Cenci brazenly pilfered precious resources away from students and staff, betraying her colleagues, schoolchildren, and our borough,\u201d Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon told The Post.<\/p>\n
State Supreme Court Judge Lisa Gray offered Cenci, 55, a plea deal without prison time \u201cover my prosecutor\u2019s objections,\u201d McMahon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile my office fought for even more serious consequences,\u00a0including imprisonment,\u00a0for Ms. Cenci\u2019s shameless criminal behavior,\u00a0the judge\u2019s\u00a0plea\u00a0offer\u00a0ensures some semblance of accountability for her criminal acts as she will be left with a permanent criminal record,\u201d the DA said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Officials said Cenci used the stolen funds to \u201csupplement\u201d her DOE salary, which totaled $84,950 in 2024, at the expense of PS 21\u2019s 398 students \u2014 including 30 percent with disabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cenci \u201cattempted to avoid detection and cover her tracks by falsifying the school\u2019s business records and used forged signatures of colleagues to make it appear that legitimate goods and services were being provided when, in fact, they were not,\u201d said Anastasia Coleman, Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, whose office conducted the probe.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, she was lining her own pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, the DA charged Cenci with two counts of grand larceny \u2013 a felony with a maximum prison sentence of five to 15 years \u2014 as well as tampering with public records, falsifying business records and forgery.<\/p>\n
Purchasing secretary Michele Cenci admitted embezzling more than $145,000 from PS 21 Margaret Emery-Elm Park, which serves 398 students on Hooker Place in Staten Island. Leonardo Munoz<\/p>\n
This week, Cenci pleaded guilty to one count of grand larceny.<\/p>\n
In exchange, she will be put on probation for five years, said DA spokesman James Clinton.<\/p>\n
Cenci agreed to make an upfront restitution payment of $46,000, then $1,500 a month until her probation ends \u2014 \u201cand will be mandated to pay back every dollar and cent she robbed from our students,\u201d McMahon said.<\/p>\n
Cenci issued bogus payments to divert school funds to herself and family members over seven years, the Staten Island DA charged. Obtained by the New York Post<\/p>\n
After Cenci\u2019s indictment, SCI Coleman warned against similar fraud elsewhere in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ask that all school administrators take the time to review their school\u2019s budget, books and records to ensure that their funds are being allocated appropriately, and that no one else is attempting the same
sort of scheme,\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n
The city Department of Education would not explain what degree of oversight then-Principal Anthony Cosentino exercised over school finances. Cosentino referred questions about his role to the DOE press office, which said only that supervisors will get training on purchasing procedures.<\/p>\n
The DOE said Cenci retired. She did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A purchasing secretary pleaded guilty this week to embezzling more than $145,000 over seven years from a Staten…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":114033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,17452,10475,820,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,9294,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-114032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-department-of-education","10":"tag-embezzling","11":"tag-fraud","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-staten-island","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114961440069230477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}