LI CRIME BRIEFS

WOODBURY / Man convicted of role as driver in home invasion

A Queens man has been convicted of robbery and burglary charges after prosecutors said he drove the getaway car in a 2010 Woodbury home invasion.

The Mineola jury deliberated for one day before convicting Aadam Yusuf, 30, of South Ozone Park, on Tuesday of first- and second-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and other charges. He faces up to 25 years in prison when Nassau County Judge David Ayres sentences him March 1.

"The jury spoke, but I do believe there are legal issues that should be dealt with in an appellate court," said Yusuf's lawyer, Donald Rollock of Mineola. Yusuf was acquitted on one count of first-degree robbery and one count of first-degree burglary, lawyers said.

Prosecutor Michael Walsh said in court that the crime occurred in November 2010 when a man pretending to be a flower deliveryman knocked on the door of an Orchard Drive home and pointed a handgun at the 26-year-old woman who answered the door. The gunman, identified as Randolph Chase, 32, of Brooklyn, then told the woman to lie down before letting three other men into the home, Walsh said.

-- ANN GIVENS

OCEANSIDE / Woman pleads not guilty to $4.7M Ponzi scheme

An Oceanside business woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday at arraignment to charges that she had run a Ponzi scheme that defrauded victims of a total of $4.7 million.

Laurie Schneider, operator of the Janitorial Close-Out City Corp., was charged last week with three counts of fraud for bilking investors out of $4.7 million in a Ponzi scheme in which she claimed to have contacts in China who could sell her industrial machinery at low prices and resell them at a high markup in the United States.

Schneider promised investors in the janitorial corporation returns of as much as 60 percent, but in fact she had no contacts in China, according to court papers filed by federal prosecutors Richard Lunger and Lara Treinis Gatz.

Schneider was actually operating a Ponzi scheme in which investors were paid with their own money or that of new investors, prosecutors said.

In all, prosecutors have said that Schneider may have bilked more than 25 investors in various schemes she ran out of a total of $9 million dollars.

Schneider's attorney, John Carman, of Garden City, has said that his client had committed no crimes, but lost money because of the economic downturn. He added

"the issues in this case are complex and uncertain," after the arraignment at the federal District Court in Central Islip.

Magistrate A. Kathleen Tomlinson released Schneider on $1.5 million bond. If convicted, Schneider faces up to 20 years in prison and forfeiture of the $4.7 million.

-- ROBERT E. KESSLER

MEDFORD / Police seek motorist who struck teen, then drove on

Suffolk police, searching for the hit-and-run driver who struck a 14-year-old girl in Medford last month, released information on the suspect's sport utility vehicle Wednesday.

Police said the vehicle is a dark-colored Toyota FJ Cruiser, likely made between 2007 and 2012, with front-end damage to its passenger side.

The incident occurred about 9:10 p.m. on Jan. 16, as the girl was walking on Horseblock Road, near Ohio Avenue. The girl had a broken leg, and the driver fled eastbound on Horseblock Road, police said.

Police ask anyone with information regarding the accident to call Crime Stoppers at 800-220-8477. All calls remain confidential.

-- GARY DYMSKI