Prosecutors accused a Kings County bureaucrat living in Park Slope of scamming the dead, alleging he stole debit- and credit-card information off the recently deceased to fuel a $78,000 spending spree, according to the borough’s top prosecutor.
“This defendant abused his position and betrayed the public trust by allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars that he then used for his personal expenses,” said District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
The 36-year-old Dean Street resident worked as a case manager with the Office of the Kings County Public Administrator, where he was responsible for managing the estates of Brooklynites who died without a last will and testament, or without a family member able to administer wills on their behalf.
But instead of divvying up his victim’s estates according to law, he pocketed more than $35,000 worth of cash, illegally withdrawn from teller machines, and used funds from their estates to make payments on a 2017 Nissan Pathfinder and a 2016 Nissan Altima. City sleuths with the Department of Investigation also reported that the perp used the stolen money to pay rent on two properties as well as phone and cable bills, and to buy stuff at Walmart, Gonzalez claimed.
The suspect even stooped to having the dead fund his vacations, inlcuding a $2,741 Carnival Cruise trip, and plane tickets to Long Island and the Bahamas, according to the district attorney.
Investigators caught on to the man’s scheme after discovering unusual charges made to the account of a decedent represented by the Kings County Public Administrator — including costs for the cruise-ship tour booked for dates that followed the person’s death, Gonzalez said.
Cops arrested the suspect in March, and officials promptly suspended him from his position at the Public Administrator’s office. He was indicted on Halloween following an investigation that revealed additional crimes, according to Gonzalez, who slapped the guy with charges including grand larceny, corrupting the government, and identity theft — for which the man could get up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top count, a rep for the district attorney said.
