Merrick woman sentenced for $456K embezzlement

A Merrick woman was sentenced today for stealing $456,000 from a Plainview building maintenance and real estate firm where she worked as a bookkeeper by forging her boss’s signature on checks made out to herself and by arranging automatic payments from company accounts to pay personal bills, according to District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Joanne Rocca, 68, of Merrick, was sentenced by Nassau County Court Judge Christopher Quinn to five years of probation and restitution of $164,000. Rocca previously served four months in jail and made $292,000 in restitution. Rocca pleaded guilty in February to grand larceny in the second degree, a C felony.

“I am pleased that the company that had its trust violated repeatedly has gotten much of its money back, and that this defendant has been held accountable for her crimes,” Rice said.

When Rice's office announced the plea deal in February, it stated that prosecutors would seek a sentence for Rocca of one-and-a-third to four years in prison. But Quinn's sentence means Rocca will not serve any additional jail time.

Between July 2004 and April 2011, Rocca used company money to pay personal her cable television, gasoline, grocery, and utility bills, and to purchase home furnishings.

The theft was discovered in May 2011 when her employer found a company check made out to Rocca’s American Express account on her desk while she was at lunch. Though Rocca denied using company money to pay her own bills, an internal review of the company’s checkbook, bank statements and accounts revealed the extent of Rocca’s theft. District attorney investigators arrested her on May 8, 2013.

Assistant District Attorney Peter Mancuso of Rice’s Government and Consumer Frauds Bureau prosecuted the case. Rocca was represented by attorney Anthony La Pinta.