©Reuters. FILE IMAGE. Products are seen at a Juan Valdez store in Bogotá, Colombia. June 5, 2019. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
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Por Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former top executive at the North American operator of the Juan Valdez has been accused of stealing more than $900,000 from the company to inflate her salary, take expensive vacations and buy luxury items on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:), the newspaper said. Thursday the district attorney of Manhattan.
Rosita Joseph, 51, a former COO of NFCGC Investments Inc, allegedly made unauthorized payroll deposits of $580,000 between January 2013 and May 2018, in addition to unauthorized wire transfers of more than $118,000.
The Brooklyn, New York, resident was also accused of billing more than $116,000 to a corporate card. American Express (NYSE:) for trips for her and others, including to Orlando, Florida, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
Joseph also allegedly spent more than $86,000 on jewelry and diamonds in addition to Gucci accessories on Amazon.
NFCGC manages the US retail sales of Juan Valdez coffee, as well as several coffee shops under the same brand.
Prosecutors said Joseph was fired in May 2018 after refusing internal requests to document her expenses.
“We will not allow unscrupulous employees to use their companies as a personal piggy bank,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
Joseph was charged with one count of grand theft in the second degree, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. However, she was granted supervised release and she must surrender her passport.
Liam Malanaphy, an attorney for Joseph, declined to comment.
NFCGC is a unit of Procafecol SA, which was created by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia. The non-profit organization represents the interests of coffee growers and promotes Colombian coffee.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, Edited in Spanish by Luis Jaime Acosta and Manuel Farías)
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