NYC law department employee pleads guilty to stealing $600K in checks, prosecutors say

Published Apr 22, 2024 at 5:07 p.m. ET

Modified Apr 22, 2024 at 5:33 p.m. ET

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Published Apr 22, 2024 at 5:07 p.m. ET

Modified Apr 22, 2024 at 5:33 p.m. ET

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A city law department mailroom worker admitted to stealing and depositing $600,000 in checks, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Brandon Santanoo, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said. Prosecutors said that from June 2021 to at least May 2023, Santanoo stole checks mailed to the New York City Law Department while working as a mailroom clerk at its Brooklyn office. He then passed those checks onto other people, who deposited them or attempted to deposit forged or altered versions of those checks into third party accounts, officials said.

In total, Santanoo stole around 40 checks payable to the law department — including ones to the worker’s compensation division, which administers claims of city workers injured on the job — totaling around $600,000 dollars, prosecutors said.

“Brandon Santanoo abused his position of trust as a city employee,” Williams said. “As he admitted today in federal court, he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of checks made payable to the Law Department and passed them along to others to fraudulently deposit. We will not tolerate any breach of trust or corruption within city agencies.”

Santanoo is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 4.

“Brandon, as a very young man, made some some bad decisions working at the city. [He] immediately accepted responsibility for his actions and is doing everything in his power to now make that right,” his lawyer Jeff Chabrowe told Gothamist on Monday.

This story has been updated with comment from Santanoo's lawyer.

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