Ex-ME Staffer Guilty in Theft Of WTC Funds

By ARI PAUL

A former Medical Examiner's Office employee pleaded guilty Oct. 23 to Federal charges of embezzlement and conspiracy for her role in stealing millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.

ROSE GILL HEARN: Sullied ME's Office.

Rosa Abreu was the Medical Examiner's Director of Records and worked directly under co-defendant and former Director of Management Information Systems Natarajan Venkataram. The two were charged with steering $13 million in agency funds, much of which originated from FEMA grants, to three firms headed by a third conspirator between 1999 and 2004. That individual then transferred large sums to shell companies created by Ms. Abreu and Mr. Venkataram.

Much of the FEMA money to which Ms. Abreu had access was meant to help the office identify victims of the World Trade Center attacks.

Ms. Abreu pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement, one count of conspiracy and three counts of money-laundering. She will be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2008. Mr. Venkataram will face trial on Nov. 26, 2007.

Leading the prosecution are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Arlo Devlin-Brown and Andrew Dember.

"By inflating the costs of computer services and software, these defendants set up a criminal scheme in order to line their own pockets," Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said at the time of their arrests in late 2005. "And, after the tragedy of September 11, their greed was unbridled. Contracts were deliberately inflated so that they could siphon more money from the government, and, in turn, taxpayers. These defendants breached their positions of trust and responsibility and took advantage of a national tragedy. The alleged misconduct mars the Herculean efforts of all the other honest OCME employees who worked tirelessly around the clock to serve the people of New York."