By Robert Pozarycki
Law enforcement agents extracted a former Flushing dental office manager and hauled her to court on charges that she allegedly stole thousands in insurance payments to the clinic.
Prosecutors said that Manhattan’s Katerin Rochet, 37, was picked up Jan. 9 on a nine-count indictment charging her with third-degree grand larceny, first-degree falsifying business records, criminal possession of a forged instrument and identity theft.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, Rochet allegedly stole more than $35,000 in insurance payments made to the Flushing Dental Group, located at 39-01 Main St., where she worked as an office manager.
“[She] used her position to steal from the people who gave her a job,” Brown said in a Jan. 10 press release. “In deliberate acts of deception, the defendant is accused of opening several bank accounts in the dental office’s name — posing as the president of the office — and then swiped the insurance checks that were intended for the dental practice. This kind of brazen thievery will not be tolerated.”
Brown said the theft took place between January and May 2017, while Rochet was employed by Flushing Dental Group. She allegedly forged an official record from the Department of State’s Division of Corporations with the office president’s name, then used it to open several bank accounts.
Within a few months, authorities said Rochet allegedly collected more than $35,000 in insurance checks intended for Flushing Dental Group. She allegedly deposited the checks into the accounts that she opened, then funneled the money into a bank account that her mother owned.
The scheme was unraveled through an investigation by the NYPD Queens District Attorney’s Detective Squad.
At her Jan. 9 arraignment, Rochet was ordered held on $25,000 bail and to return to court March 14. She faces between 3 1/2 and 7 years behind bars if convicted.
Reach reporter Robert Pozarycki by e-mail at rpoza
