Former executive director of Long Island Charity sentenced to two years in prison for embezzlement

Earlier today, in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Senior U.S. District Judge Edward R. Corman sentenced Wafa Abboud to 33 months in prison. As part of the verdict, Judge Corman also ordered Abboud to forfeit $836,000 and pay $1,415,000 in damages to Human First, Inc. (Human First), a non-profit agency that Abboud ran for more than five years. Abboud was convicted after a two-week jury trial in July 2019 for theft of programs receiving federal funds, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit these crimes.

Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the verdict.

“Theft of taxpayer money meant for youth with developmental disabilities to pay for vacations, cosmetic surgeries and luxury vacations is shameful,” the US Attorney said. “Today, the defendant was prosecuted for betraying the most vulnerable among us, whom she was entrusted with serving, and treating the nonprofit’s bank accounts as if they were her own.”

Mr. Peace thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York for investigating the case.

From January 2011 until her dismissal on May 27, 2016, Abboud was the chief executive of Human First, a non-profit corporation that provided services to people with autism and other developmental disabilities. In this capacity, Abboud had almost complete control over the finances of the charity. During Abboud’s tenure, Human First received tens of millions of dollars annually from the New York State Office of Developmental Disabilities, which is heavily funded by Medicaid. The money was made available to Human First to support its mission of providing housing, rehabilitation and other services to youth with developmental disabilities.

Abboud entered into an agreement with co-defendant Marcel Bailey whereby Abboud made Human First pay Bailey’s MPB Management Services LLC (MPB) approximately $16,000 per month in alleged “consulting” fees. Bailey deposited approximately half of each monthly payment into bank accounts controlled by Abboud, who used the money to finance a luxurious lifestyle, including high-priced international vacations, visits to luxury spas and high-end beauty salons and restaurants, and elective cosmetic surgeries. Abboud also withdrew about $120,000 in cash from the accounts and transferred tens of thousands of dollars to an overseas account. In total, Abboud stole about $420,000 between May 2011 and February 2016 through the MPB embezzlement scheme.

Abboud also conspired with co-defendant Rami Taha to steal over $400,000 through a scheme in which Abboud deliberately paid overpayments to contractors doing work at Human First facilities, knowing that the overpayments would be returned to her. The overpayments were masked with inflated billing submitted by Human First, and payments to Abboud were hidden by transferring funds through several fictitious bank accounts before eventually being transferred to accounts controlled by Abboud. Abboud used the stolen money to pay the down payment and renovate her house. To hide the true source of the funds, Abboud lied to her mortgage lender, falsely claiming the funds were compensation she had received for damage to her previous home.

Bailey pleaded guilty to embezzlement and bank fraud in December 2017 and was sentenced by Judge Corman in August 2021 to 33 months in prison. In May 2019, Taha pleaded guilty to embezzlement. The fourth defendant, Arkadiusz Swiechovich, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in September 2018. Takha and Svekhovich are awaiting sentencing.

The case of the government is handled by the Public Integrity Division of the Office. Assistant US Attorneys Robert Polemeni and Turner Buford are in charge of the prosecution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanisha Payne of the Office’s Asset Recovery Division is handling forfeiture issues in this case.