RAIDED CHILD FUNDS

4 in $1.5M grab

A BROOKLYN supermarket owner admitted to stealing money from special-needs Orthodox Jewish children to fund his own business and purchase jewelry, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Daniel Laniado pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court to first-degree identity theft and agreed to pay $1.48 million in seized assets, restitution and settlement judgments to the city Education Department.

“The public funds provided to Island Child Development Center were earmarked for special-needs preschoolers with disabilities, making them the real victims of this fraud,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Laniado, 44, and his three co-defendants, Rabbi Samuel Hiller, 59, Ira Kurman, 54, and Roy Hoffman, 53, were indicted in 2014 on allegations they illegally diverted funds from the $27 million Island Child Development (photo) received from the state to their relatives, for-profit businesses and for personal expenses including jewelry, a family wedding and home renovations, prosecutors said.

When a routine audit was set in 2012 by the state controller’s office, Kurman, the child center’s executive director, suddenly left his job and took the books with him.

The now-defunct center was at 1854 Cornaga Ave. in Far Rockaway.

Laniado, who owns a kosher grocery store in Borough Park, faces up to a year on Rikers Island if he fails to pay $82,000 in restitution before his June 29 sentencing.

Hiller, Kurman and Hoffman also pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny for their roles in the scheme and are awaiting sentencing, which will include restitution. Hiller has agreed to repay $5 million, Kurman will repay $650,000 and Hoffman will repay $180,000.

Prosecutors said Hiller is also expected to be sentenced to one to three years in state prison.