Hospital bookkeeper stole $63G

A former Astoria resident and New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens employee has been extradited from Georgia to face embezzlement charges.
Carla Henderson, 51, allegedly embezzled $63,381 while working as a bookkeeper for the hospital. Henderson worked in the hospital from September of 2003 to June of 2004. Her responsibilities there included receiving and processing checks payable.
Henderson allegedly created a shell company, named New York Health Medical Care Quality, which shared the actual hospital’s initials, and diverted nine checks into it. From there, the money was allegedly transferred into Henderson’s personal account. She is also accused of falsifying hospital financial records to hide the embezzlement.
The theft was discovered when the hospital did an internal audit of financial records.
“The defendant is accused of using her position of trust as a fiduciary agent almost from the first day of her employment to unjustly enrich herself by siphoning off tens of thousands of dollars payable to the hospital,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. “Her alleged conduct represents a betrayal of the confidence that the hospital and medical professionals had in her.”
Henderson left her position at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens before the embezzlement had been discovered and had moved to Georgia.
The 32-count indictment against Henderson includes charges of second-degree grand larceny, first-degree identity theft, first-degree scheme to defraud and first-degree falsifying business records. Henderson is facing a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.