Wafa Abboud, of Merrick, former head of LI nonprofit sentenced to 33 months in prison for embezzlement
Wafa Abboud, right, former executive director of Human First, a Long Island nonprofit, leaves the federal courthouse in Brooklyn during her embezzlement trial in 2019. Credit: Charles Eckert
A Merrick woman convicted of stealing more than $1 million from the nonprofit agency she founded was sentenced to 33 months in prison Wednesday by a federal judge in Brooklyn.
Wafa Abboud, 55, the former executive director of Human First Inc., was convicted, after a two-week jury trial in July 2019, of theft from programs receiving federal funds, bank fraud, and conspiracies to commit those crimes. Abboud did not express remorse or acknowledge the guilty verdict before she was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman.
Instead, she told Korman that she built Human First into an agency with a $22 million annual budget that took on difficult clients that other agencies avoided. She also told the judge that her three children continue to suffer as a result of the charges filed against her.
“The jury found you guilty,” said Korman, who also ordered Abboud to pay $1.415 million in restitution to Human First. “I accept their verdict. I have to impose a sentence.”
Abboud later told reporters that “a lot of things went wrong” during her case as her attorney, Sarah Kunstler, urged her to remain quiet.
“Judge Korman is a thoughtful judge,” Kunstler said. “We will be appealing.”
Abboud was the executive director of Human First, which provided services to individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, from January 2011 until her termination on May 27, 2016. Prosecutors said the agency received millions of dollars annually from the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.
Prosecutors said Abboud and co-defendant Marcelle Bailey concocted a scheme in which Human First paid Bailey’s MPB Management Services LLC about $16,000 a month for “consulting” fees. Bailey deposited half of the money each month into bank accounts controlled by Abboud, who spent the funds on expensive international vacations, cosmetic surgeries, and visits to luxury spas, high-end salons and restaurants.
Abboud also withdrew $120,000 from the accounts in cash and wired tens of thousands of dollars overseas. She stole a total of $420,000 through the MPB embezzlement scheme, prosecutors said.
Abboud also conspired with co-defendant Rami Taha to steal more than $400,000 from Human First. Abboud deliberately overpaid contractors performing work on Human First properties, according to prosecutors, who said the overpayment would then be kicked back to Abboud.
Abboud used the stolen money to help buy and renovate her million-dollar Merrick home, prosecutors said.
Kunstler told Korman that Abboud suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder due to an abusive relationship while leading Human First.
“She lost her way,” the attorney said.
Bailey pleaded guilty to embezzlement and bank fraud in December 2017 and was sentenced in August 2021 by Korman to 33 months in prison. Taha pleaded guilty to embezzlement in May 2019 and is awaiting sentencing. A fourth defendant, Arkadiusz Swiechowicz, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in September 2018 and is also awaiting sentencing.
About a dozen supporters attended Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. Many had written letters to the judge describing how Abboud had helped them and their families. They said Abboud helped them translate documents, navigate bureaucracies, and drove them to medical appointments.
Pastor John Rivers of the Worship Christian Center in St. Albans, Queens, said afterward that Abboud helped his church apply for grants and start programs for needy kids — even though she was not a member of the congregation.
“She is a wonderful person,” Rivers said. “She is an angel.”
“Stealing taxpayer money earmarked for developmentally disabled youth to pay for vacations, cosmetic surgery and luxurious vacations is shameful,” said Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Today, the defendant has been held accountable for betraying the most vulnerable among us whom she was entrusted to serve and treating the nonprofit organization bank accounts as though they were her own.”
