The former financial director of the American Red Cross Suffolk chapter was sentenced to jail time Wednesday after she was convicted of stealing more than $274,000, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.
Deborah Leggio, 50, pleaded guilty in January 2012 to second-degree grand larceny and a charge of offering a false instrument for filing, which the DA said is related to tax evasion. Her sentencing was delayed in an effort to allow the California resident to make restitution. Prosecutors said Leggio moved from Coram to California in 2010. She was arrested by DA’s investigators after a warrant was issued in February 2011.
In a statement, Spota said Leggio “used the Red Cross chapter’s debit card to make ATM cash withdrawals, ‘sometimes as often as every couple of days’ from April 2005 to November 2009.” Over the more than four year period, Leggio illegally withdrew $274,301, Spota said.
“She was a signatory to the operating account, and without permission or authority, she obtained an ATM debit card in her name linked to the account,” Spota said in a statement. An investigation by the DA’s Economic Crime Bureau netted her arrest.
Wednesday morning, Leggio appeared in a Riverhead courtroom and received a 2 1/3- to 7-year prison sentence. She was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody. The DA said that she will also make restitution of $25,142 to the American Red Cross and NY State Tax Office.
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