Photo Courtesy of Google
Badal worked as the in-house accountant for Titan Industrial Services Inc. in Maspeth for 22 years.
By Forum Staff
A Brooklyn woman has been charged with stealing millions of dollars from her employer for a third of the 22 years she worked at a demolition company in Maspeth, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Thursday.
Vedeyah Badal, 56, has been arraigned on a three-count criminal complaint charging her with grand larceny in the first degree, money laundering in the second degree, and falsifying business records in the first degree. Badal was ordered to return to court on June 7.
According to the charges, Badal worked for Titan Industrial Services Inc. for 22 years. She was the company’s in-house accountant and had access and virtually unlimited control over the business’s finances throughout her tenure at the interior/exterior demolition company. In 2019, Badal left the company. It was at that point, someone discovered three employees who existed in name only and that these three fictitious workers were getting paid weekly.
According to the complaint, the company owners conducted a forensic audit and found a total of 13 phantom employees created between 2012 and 2019. The fake workers had bogus Social Security numbers and were even having federal, state and local taxes withheld from the paychecks.
File Photo
“Allegedly skimming money by the millions, this trusted employee found an unusual way to pad her bank account,” DA Katz said.
DA Katz said the audit showed several alleged instances of hundreds of checks written and deposited to benefit Badal. Between June 2015 and March 2019, there were 289 checks written against the business’s M & T Bank account. Those checks were allegedly deposited into Badal’s Chase Bank account. The 289 checks totaled $630,132.
Between May 2014 and March 2019, 269 checks were drawn from the business’s bank account with $596,326 cashed and allegedly deposited into Badal’s Citibank account. And from December 2015 through March 2019, Badal allegedly cashed 132 checks at a local check cashing business for a total $295,127.
The DA added that, in all, Badal allegedly embezzled $2 million from her former employer. The company lost another $1 million paying taxes, Social Security contributions and disability and Medicare from the fake employees’ checks.
“Allegedly skimming money by the millions, this trusted employee found an unusual way to pad her bank account. Working as an accountant, the defendant is accused of creating fake employees and adding them to the payroll. When the checks were cut, she was the alleged recipient depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars into her personal bank accounts,” Katz said. “This complicated con was uncovered and she is now facing serious charges.”
Badal faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
