DA: Massapequa woman who stole $100G from employer sentenced

A Massapequa woman, who admitted stealing more than $100,000 from one employer and for issuing herself more than two dozen prescriptions for medications while employed by another, has been sentenced to 3 to 6 years in prison, Nassau prosecutors said Wednesday.

Yessenia Alongi, 37, had pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny and five counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument on Oct. 14 before Judge Erica Prager, prosecutors said.

Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said that between March and June, while employed at a doctor’s office in East Meadow, Alongi “wrote more than 30 prescriptions for various controlled substances, including Hydrocodone, Xanax and Valium.” Those prescriptions were filled at a local pharmacy, where Alongi told the pharmacist she was a nurse — and was picking up the prescriptions “for elderly patients who couldn’t do it themselves,” Singas said.

After leaving that job, Singas said, Alongi began work as a bookkeeper for a window company in Freeport.

There, Singas said, Alongi stole a checkbook belonging to the business — and wrote herself a series of checks totaling $109,332. She cashed those checks at a local check-cashing facility.

The fake prescription scheme was uncovered by police investigating the check cashing scheme, Singas said.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”