Off-duty jail cop in rape rap
The former director of a Long Island charity for the developmentally disabled was convicted Tuesday of stealing nearly a million dollars to bankroll trips, Broadway tickets, cosmetic surgery and pampering at spas and pricey beauty parlors.
After a two-week trial in Brooklyn Federal Court, Wafa Abboud, 51, of Merrick, the former head of the nonprofit Human First, was found guilty of embezzling, bank fraud and money laundering and is facing up to 30 years in jail.
“With today’s verdict, Abboud (inset) has been held accountable for abusing her position of trust … and funding her elaborate lifestyle with money intended to serve the needs of vulnerable individuals in the community,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Richard Donoghue said in a statement.
The swindle, from January 2011 to May 2016, involved Abboud’s authorization of $16,000 a month in supposed consultant fees to MPB Management Services, a company controlled by coconspirator Marcelle Bailey.
In total, she funneled $420,000 of charity funds into the accounts and used the dough to pay for her personal expenses including a trip to Disneyland, tickets to the Broadway show “Newsies,” visits to luxury spas and high-end beauty salons, cosmetic surgeries and wire transfers, authorities said.
She also embezzled more than $440,000 from the charity with another co-conspirator Rami Taha, a consultant who Abboud hired to work at the charity, and then approved his jacked-up invoices.
Abboud also awarded herself an annual salary of $479,000 — without ever telling the charity’s board of directors — so she could pay off a mortgage loan, authorities said. An off-duty city correction officer was arrested on rape charges Tuesday, cops said.
Christopher Sierra, 27, was busted in the Bronx about 1:15 a.m. after a 19-year-old woman claimed he had raped her, police said.
Sierra is an acquaintance of the woman, who told cops that he forced himself on her after they hung out, sources said.
Police charged Sierra with rape and committing a criminal sex act.
Sierra, who joined the Correction Department in June 2016 and was assigned to the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island, made $48,000 last year, according to seethroughny.com.
A Correction spokeswoman said Sierra was suspended upon his arrest.