Somerset County women admit to defrauding Seton Hall Law School of more than $1.3 million
A Somerset County woman who was formerly assistant dean of Seton Hall Law School and her sister were among the three people who have pleaded guilty in federal court to defrauding the school of more than $1.3 million.
Teresina DeAlmeida, 59, and Silvia Cardoso, 61, both of Warren, have pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, before U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals in Newark federal court.
Rose Martins, 44, of East Hanover, was the other person who pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.
All three are no longer employed by the school.
Sentencing for Cardoso is scheduled for Nov. 26, for DeAlmeida Dec. 2, and for Martins Dec. 3.
“Through an elaborate, years-long embezzlement scheme, these defendants violated their obligation to the students and exploited their role at this institution of higher learning to line their own pockets," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in a press release. "Through forgery, fraudulent invoices, unauthorized transactions and phony shell companies, they stole money intended to benefit the school and its student body and abused their positions."
Court papers say DeAlmeida was an assistant dean responsible for the school's financial functions and Martins served as her assistant. Cardoso, DeAlmeida’s sister, was also employed by the school in a support staff role.
Court papers say the trio used a variety of methods to defraud the law school:
Beginning in 2009, DeAlmeida directed a school vendor to pay Martins and Cardoso as though they worked for the vendor, though they did not perform any services. DeAlmeida and Martins then caused the vendor to submit false invoices to the graduate school over four years to reimburse the vendor for the amounts paid to Martins and Cardoso.
From 2010 through 2022, DeAlmeida and Martins directed school vendors to order hundreds of thousands of dollars of gift cards and prepaid debit cards the trio used for their personal benefit, and then to submit fraudulent invoices to the school purporting to be for goods and services that were never provided. The conspirators also misused DeAlmeida’s school-issued credit card to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars of gift cards and prepaid debit cards from the school’s bookstore. DeAlmeida routinely fraudulently approved these charges and Martins forged the signatures of other employees on internal approvals.
In 2015, Martins opened a shell entity called CMS Content Management Specialist LLC. Although CMS never rendered any services to the graduate school, Martins submitted, and DeAlmeida approved, fraudulent invoices totaling more than $208,000.
The conspirators also used DeAlmeida’s school-issued credit card to make tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized personal purchases. DeAlmeida and Martins used the card to make more than $70,000 in purchases at an online retailer shipped directly to their homes, including woman’s shoes, smart watches, and bed linens. DeAlmeida and Martins fraudulently altered certain receipts before submitting them to the school for payment.
The wire fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ women admit defrauding Seton Hall Law School of over $1.3M
