Former employee of RXUSA in Port Washington admits to stealing $1.4M

The former office manager of a Port Washington pharmaceutical company pleaded guilty Friday to stealing nearly $1.4 million from three businesses over a five-year span, Nassau County prosecutors said.

Maria Porras, 32, pleaded guilty in Mineola to three counts of second-degree grand larceny, four counts of third-degree criminal tax fraud and four counts of offering a false instrument for filing.

“Over five years, this defendant swindled three pharmaceutical companies out of more than a million dollars, abusing her authority and access to write unauthorized checks from company accounts and divert incoming checks into her personal bank accounts,” said Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “The defendant also filed false tax returns with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance that concealed the proceeds of her theft. Maria Porras’ greed caught up with her and she is being held accountable with this felony conviction.”

As part of a plea agreement, Porras agreed to pay $100,000 in restitution before her Jan. 9 sentencing and she will be ordered to pay the remainder after serving her sentence. 

Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 2½ years to 6½ years in prison.

“Mrs. Porras is extremely relieved to close this chapter of her life by accepting responsibility,” said Scott Gross, Porras’ Garden City-based defense attorney. “Thankfully, the court took the time to listen to all aspects of the case, and when properly balancing all of the issues, the court came to a just conclusion.”

From 2015 through 2019, Porras worked as an office manager for RXUSA, a pharmaceutical firm in Port Washington, where she had access to the company’s bookkeeping systems, prosecutors said.

Porras admitted writing checks from the accounts of RXUSA and two affiliated companies, Eveready Wholesale Drugs Inc. and PBM America Inc., authorities said. The owner of those companies, Robert Drucker, died in March 2017 and the companies closed in December 2019.

Porras was arrested in November 2020 by the Port Washington Police Department after authorities discovered she deposited checks from RXUSA written out to the company’s vendors and diverted incoming checks to her personal account, prosecutors said.

In total, Porras embezzled $1.38 million from the three companies, officials said.

An investigation by the state Department of Taxation and Finance found Porras also failed to report the income on her personal tax returns, authorities said.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.