Dept. Of Finance Employees Arrested For Theft

Two Department of Finance employees have been arrested for stealing payments from New York City Department of Finance (DOF) Business Centers.
The defendants have been identified as Annie Staton, 46, of Brooklyn, and Raka Arora, 48, of Queens.
Staton, a cashier in DOF’s Brooklyn Business Center, admitted to stealing a $700 payment from a customer and Arora, a cashier in DOF’s Queens Business Center, admitted to stealing a $60 payment from a customer.
Staton will be charged with official misconduct and petit larceny. If convicted, she faces up to one year in jail.
Arora was charged with official misconduct, petit larceny, falsifying business records in the second degree and tampering with public records in the second degree. If convicted, she faces up to one year in jail.
“These defendants chose to pad their own finances by pocketing payments intended for [the] DOF,” said Rose Gill Hearn, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI). “Their actions are not only greedy, they are also illegal, and this kind of misconduct will not be tolerated.”
DOI began its investigation of Arora after receiving a complaint from an individual who visited the Queens Business Center to pay a summons. He paid $60 to Arora and received a receipt. One month later the complainant received a delinquency notice from the DOF stating that he had not paid his summons. He returned to the Queens Business Center and showed them his receipt, but it reflected “$00.00” paid. Upon questioning, Arora admitted to stealing the $60.