A former Juan Valdez Café locaion in Midtown Manhattan. Public area picture.
The previous Chief Working Officer of the corporate that operates the Juan Valdez model in North America pleaded responsible to grand larceny after stealing almost greater than $900,000 from the corporate.
Rosita Joseph, 51, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to 3 to 6 years in state jail following the responsible plea final week in New York State Supreme Court docket.
Joseph was the COO of NFCGC Investments, Inc., a U.S.-based subsidiary of Colombia’s Procafecol S.A., which was established by the nonprofit Colombian Espresso Growers Federation (FNC) to handle the Juan Valdez model internationally.
“Rosita Joseph openly fleeced her employer so she may inflate her wage and make extravagant purchases, together with luxurious holidays,” Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin L. Bragg Jr. stated in an announcement of the sentencing. “The greater than $900,000 cash ought to have gone to rising the corporate or immediately into the pockets of staff, as a substitute of Ms. Joseph’s personal checking account.”
Joseph was accused of stealing from the corporate over a interval of 5 years starting in 2013. In line with prosecutors, Joseph used an organization bank card to pay for luxurious holidays for her and her relations to quite a few places, together with the Cayman Islands, Barbados, The Bahamas and Orlando, Florida.
Joseph was additionally accused of utilizing the corporate to card to buy greater than $86,000 price of things, together with jewellery and Gucci merchandise. Over the 5 12 months interval, Joseph made almost $700,000 price of unauthorized wire transfers and unauthorized payroll deposits to her non-public accounts.
The investigation started after Procafecol carried out a routine monetary audit in 2016 and Joseph refused to offer financial institution statements and different account paperwork. NFCGC subsequently fired Joseph.
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