The charges include grand larceny, identity theft, and
falsifying business records at one of the city’s largest providers of special
education services for disabled children, according to a news release issued
Tuesday by Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown.
“It is disheartening
to see a betrayal of the magnitude alleged in this indictment,” Brown said in a
statement.
The men allegedly diverted money belonging to Island
Child Development Centre, which serves Orthodox preschool children with disabilities,
used it for personal expenses, home repairs and other business endeavours.
If convicted, each of the men would face up to 25
years in prison.
The fraud was uncovered when the centre’s former
executive director ran off with his records just before a scheduled routine
annual audit meeting in July 2012.
The centre received roughly $27 million in state
funding between 2005 and 2012.
The defendants were identified as Rabbi Samuel Hiller,
56, of Far Rockaway in the borough of Queens, Kurman, 52, of Hewlett, the
former executive director of the non-profit centre in Far Rockaway from which
the New York state and city funding was taken; Daniel Laniado, 41, the owner of
a kosher supermarket in Brooklyn; and Roy Hoffmann, 50, of Woodmere.
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