Couple charged with embezzling more than $900,000 from Lynbrook company

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A paralegal from Las Vegas and her husband, who are accused of embezzling more than $900,000 from the Sorbara Construction Corp. in Lynbrook, were arraigned in State Supreme Court in Mineola on Wednesday.

Linda Minervini, 53, and Thomas Cacaci Jr., 37, appeared before Justice Meryl Berkowitz on an indictment charging them with second-degree grand larceny and 20 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

“These defendants scammed more than $900,000 from a construction company and used the money for a time share, car expenses and legal fees,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas stated in a news release. “When employees embezzle, they should expect to be fully prosecuted by my office.”

Minervini, a former Queens resident, worked as a paralegal at Sorbara Construction. According to Singas, her responsibilities included settling liability construction claims of less than $10,000 and sending the claimants their settlement checks.

Between October 2009 and November 2015, Singas said, Minervini embezzled $913,315 from the company by writing checks for payments of claims that didn’t exist. After the checks were signed by company executives, who didn’t know they were fraudulent, Minervini altered them by adding other payees without the executives’ knowledge.

Many of the checks were made out to Cacaci, who allegedly assisted his wife in depositing them into the account of a corporation the couple formed in 2010 under the name New York Emergency & First Response Inc.

A suspicious office manager at Sorbara uncovered the scheme in November 2015, and Minervini was fired. The defendants allegedly purchased a time share in Las Vegas in May 2016 with the money they had stolen, after living in separate residences in Queens.

The couple were arrested by Las Vegas police on Dec. 9, and brought to New York to face the charges. Bail was set at $1 million cash for Minervini, and $300,000 bond or $200,000 cash for Cacaci.

If convicted, Minervini faces a maximum sentence of 7½ to 15 years in prison, and Cacaci faces five to 15 years.

The couple’s attorney, Danielle Rosenberg, could not be reached for comment as of press time.