Posted on 08/05/2024 2:21:31 PM PDT by dennisw
An upstate village clerk accused of swiping more than $1 million — about the same amount as her town’s annual budget — will give up her pension in a historic New York forfeiture case.
Disgraced former Addison employee Ursula Stone, 55, allegedly stole $1,171,362 in village funds over at least 19 years — and is now the first politician to fork over her pension under New York’s anti-corruption law, state and county officials announced late last week.
“This case represents the most complete, and to be frank, shocking breach of public trust I have encountered in 30 years as a Steuben County prosecutor,” Steuben County District Attorney Brooks Baker said in a statement.
“The reality is that but for some real heads-up detection work by members of the State Comptroller’s staff, it would still be ongoing.”
Stone appeared in Steuben County Court on Thursday and agreed to forfeit her pension of $1,920 a month, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said it marked New York’s first pension forfeiture under anti-corruption measures passed as part of an ethics reform package in 2011 and expanded in 2017.
Though the law had never been wielded in court before, Stone’s case was a perfect fit because her alleged crimes “impacted that village on a day-to-day basis,” Baker said, according to the outlet.
A 2022 audit of the village by DiNapoli’s office found that Stone had been overseeing the village’s finances with no oversight or accountability, officials said.
She prepared payroll, maintained manual leave records and processed health insurance buyouts as well as unused leave payments — all without approval from the mayor or other village officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
They force all the crooked government people to cough it up and cut our taxes
Give up her pension?
How about “going to prison”? If convicted she’s convicted of embezzlement.
Yikes! First time I have ever seen this. So no pension checks piling up for her while she is in prison. She was due to get approximately $25000 per year pension. She has not been sentenced yet. But if she gets locked up for three years, she would have had $75000 waiting for her when she was released.
The feel good story of the day.
Make government employees worry about their pensions and they’ll stop the stealing and start working.
If she invested the money, she should be fine.
Not that I expect thieves to be so forward thinking.
I think it will fall....
Standard embezzling scenario. One person handling everything with no or minimal oversight.
Won’t it take 50 years to get back the money?
Don’t think she’s good for that.
She got a deal. From May...
https://www.weny.com/story/50844371/former-addison-village-clerk-pleads-guilty-in-plea-deal
No info on what the deal involved.
Now I wonder why that is...?
I’m shocked that in modern times, this is still occuring. Do you think there are other similar ongoing frauds being done?
Owners too lazy or addled to check?
Management afraid to audit aggressively because they might seem accusatory or offensive?
Well,they might stop stealing not sure if they’ll start working.
A Democrat!?
So where is the $1.1 million? Did they get any of that back?
Convicted of a felony against an employer? Loss of all pension benefits should by all accounts be automatic and non-challengeable.
It’ll probably never be enough to pay back what she stole, but if she invested wisely, she should be set for life.
She deserves jail time, too.
BOTH!
Lotta thieving women in these type of stories. So much for the trust the holy estrogens crowd.
Such a shame the major didn’t hire a newly minted CPA who could have nailed her at any time these past nineteen years.
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