Five Towners, rabbi stole over $17 million

A pair of Five Towns residents and a Queens rabbi will be sentenced for their part in a scheme to embezzle more than $17 million of city and state funding that was expected to be used for special-needs students between 3-and 5-years-old, who attend the Island Child Development Center in Far Rockaway.

Roy Hoffman, 53, from Woodmere; Ira Kurman, 54, from Hewlett; and Daniel Lanaido, 44, of Brooklyn; were indicted in 2014. The trio were accused of diverting more than $12 million of the $27 million the development center received in state money to relatives, their for-profit business and jewelry, a family wedding and home renovations.

Kurman was the development center’s executive director. Hoffman was hired by the center as an independent auditor (a state requirement), and Lanaido was a self-described investor in the center.

Rabbi Samuel Hiller, the former assistant director of the center, pleaded guilty on April 20 to embezzling $5 million in city and state funding from 2005 and 2012 — money expected to be used for the Orthodox Jewish pre-school children mainly from Far Rockaway and Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn that attend the center.

“Stealing from the public is bad enough, but exploiting small children to pay your plumber and support your for-profit camps is reprehensible,” State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said about Hiller in a prepared release.

The thefts came to light after DiNapoli’s office notified Kurman that it planned to conduct what comptroller’s office called a “routine audit” of the money the center received. When the state auditors arrived in July 2012, they were told that Kurman had left and taken his books and records. The case was then referred to the district attorney’s office.

Hoffman and Kurman previously pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny. They are awaiting sentencing. Their plea included restitution. Lanaido’s case is pending.

Hiller pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny. He is most likely be sentenced to one to three years in prison. He pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny. If he does not pay the required $1 million in restitution at his June 15 sentencing, Hiller will be sentenced two to six years. He will pay back $3 million at a later date.

“The defendant chose to divert millions of these funds for his own purposes,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in the release. “While it is disheartening to see a betrayal of the public trust of such magnitude as exposed here, those who engage in frauds of this nature will be brought to justice and held accountable for their actions.”