STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A 55-year-old former Staten Islander embezzled nearly $2.5 million from a celebrity restaurant in Midtown Manhattan where she worked, prosecutors allege.
Lori Jakubowski allegedly committed money laundering when she used some of the funds stolen from Fresco by Scotto to buy a home in Pennsylvania.
Rosanna Scotto, anchor of Fox 5’s Good Day New York, and her children, Jenn and LJ Ruggiero, are listed as owners on the website for the Italian-inspired eatery at 34 E. 52nd Street.
Jakubowski, who lives on Arlington Street in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was arraigned on Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on a four-count indictment. Prosecutors allege that Jakubowski used various schemes to steal $2,485,779.79 from the restaurant over about seven years starting in 2016.
The defendant, who previously lived in Great Kills, allegedly pocketed cash the restaurant received from sales and tips. She transferred funds to herself using checks from the restaurant’s bank account while concealing the thefts with false entries in the eatery’s QuickBooks financial ledger, prosecutors allege.
Jakubowski allegedly deposited checks payable to the restaurant in her own bank account and used the eatery’s bank account to pay her husband’s cable bill. She increased her compensation by allegedly issuing paychecks to herself that she falsely claimed were for vacation pay.
Prosecutors allege that the defendant laundered at least $100,000 of her ill-gotten gains to buy a $164,500 house in Pennsylvania. She allegedly used 88 separate checks and money orders to make payments in April 2023.
The indictment alleges grand larceny in the first degree, money laundering in the second degree and two counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
Jakubowski has pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released with non-monetary conditions. She is due back in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Feb. 24, according to public records.
An attorney for the defendant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
