Anna Maria Restrepo sentenced for grand larceny

Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Glen Head woman was sentenced today to up to six years in prison for stealing more than $600,000 from an Oyster Bay yacht club over the course of seven years.

Anna Maria Restrepo, who also goes by Anna Maria Saboski, 59, pleaded guilty on January 13 to grand larceny. She was sentenced to three to six years in prison.

Restrepo was also ordered to pay $608,886 on behalf of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club and a further $14,449 on behalf of American Express. She waived her right to appeal the plea and sentence.

This was not Restrepo’s first offense, as she was previously convicted of falsifying business records in May 2009. In that case, Restrepo stole more than $100,000 while working as a fiscal manager at Glen Cove Child Day Care.

“Entrusted with the club’s credit cards, this defendant exploited that unique access to siphon $600,000 of club funds into her own bank accounts and used the money for personal expenses and made withdrawals at several casinos and resorts,” said Donnelly. “The defendant was previously convicted for a similar fraud scheme just months after she began working for the yacht club. Instead of starting fresh the defendant’s greed only intensified, and now she will spend years in prison as a result of her actions.”

Donnelly said that in March 2009 the defendant was hired as a boatyard bookkeeper for the yacht club, later being promoted to boatyard office manager. Restrepo’s responsibilities included handling recordkeeping and the payment of the club’s credit card.

Her duties regarding purchasing were limited to office supplies as all boatyard inventory was purchased directly by the yacht club’s ship store clerk. Between 2010 and 2017, Restrepo stole more than $600,000 from the yacht club, with much of the theft committed by using credit card numbers belonging to two SCYC employees.

Restrepo initiated fraudulent credit card charges using PayPal and directed the funds to her own personal PayPal account. From January 2013 through February 2017 the credit cards assigned to the two employees were involved in more than 460 unauthorized fund transfers to her PayPal account. Restrepo also made unauthorized charges at various restaurants and retail stores.

To hide her illegal conduct, she also falsified the yacht club’s business

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Between 2013 and 2017, funds that were fraudulently transferred into Restrepo’s PayPal account were disbursed using a PayPal debit card on more than 880 occasions, including withdrawals and transactions that took place in Costa Rica, the Seneca Casino Hotel in Niagara Falls, New York, and the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York.

Withdrawals were also made in Glen Cove, Glen Head and Oyster Bay. There were additional transfers from Restrepo’s PayPal account directly into a bank account that she controlled.

In July 2016, Restrepo also opened an American Express card in the name of a yacht club employee without his permission or consent, and a supplemental account in her own name.

From August 2016 through February 2017, Restrepo used these cards to make numerous unauthorized purchases for tens of thousands of dollars over the internet to fund her PayPal account and to retailers like Peapod, Ticketmaster, and the Tropicana Casino & Resort.