N.Y. federation worker sentenced in $2 million scam
Published October 22, 2012
NEW YORK (JTA) — A UJA-Federation of New York employee was sentenced to six to 18 years in prison for stealing and selling the personal information of donors.
Tracey Nelson, 25, who had worked at the federation for three years, was sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court after pleading to grand larceny earlier this month, the New York Post reported last week. She was part of a $2 million identity theft operation that along with targeting the federation also hit banks and a car dealership.
Nelson sold the information of some 200 federation donors, including former AIG chief executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and billionaire investor Ira Rennert, according to the Forward. Others in the ring used the information to order duplicate credit cards or create and plunder dummy accounts.
Nelson, the mother of a young boy, collected several unemployment checks after she was fired by UJA in the summer of 2011, despite being in jail. The checks were stopped once the authorities discovered what was happening.
At the sentencing, Nelson wept and apologized for her actions, the Post reported.
According to the Post, UJA-Federation authorities have stressed that no donor suffered financial losses in the scam.
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