A Far Rockaway social worker was charged Thursday with grand larceny and identity theft after she allegedly stole nearly $150,000 from an elderly patient at a rehab center where she worked in 2019.
Olivia Gordon, 28, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on March 11 on a host of charges, following allegations that she robbed a 90-year-old patient in her facility after getting access to her bank account, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Gordon, who’s from Hempstead, Long Island, was serving as the director of social services at a Far Rockaway rehabilitation and health care center in March 2019. That month, a 90-year-old woman was transferred to the facility after falling over and injuring herself inside her Brooklyn home.
Upon her admittance to the facility, Gordon gained access to the woman’s bank account statements and other financial documents.
Shortly after the woman was admitted, Gordon allegedly began taking money out of the woman’s account and transferring it into her own.
In May 2019, Gordon made multiple withdraw’s from the patient’s account, including one of $106,148, according to the criminal complaint. Each withdraw from the elderly woman’s account corresponded with a payment made by Gordon a short time later, according to the DA.
Late in June 2019, Gordon paid off a federal student loan with a single payment of $106,148, the charges state.
Gordon also allegedly used the stolen cash to pay off several credit cards.
But Gordon went further, attempting to make her self the legal heir to the woman’s nearly $1 million fortune upon her death, Katz said.
On May 7, 2019, the company holding an annuity for the 90-year-old received a fax from Gordon claiming that she was the “caretaker/pseudo grandchild” of the woman, according to the authorities. Several days later, she allegedly sent a second fax requesting the company send her cash.
The company denied the request after being unable to verify the claims with the 90-year-old.
Gordon, who will return to court on May 4, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
