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A 57 year old woman identified as Cindy Tappe, has allegedly siphoned $3.5 million in state funding and blew a chunk of the cash on herself.
Cindy Tappe is accused of diverting the money into bank accounts via two shell companies she had created and using at least $660,000 of the funds to renovate her Connecticut home and other personal expenses, including an $80,000 swimming pool.
She drafted false invoices for three subcontractors to submit in order to divert the funds, and the subcontractors took between 3% and 6% without doing any of the contracted work, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.
The remainder of the diverted funds was sent to Tappe’s shell companies, High Galaxy Inc and PCM Group Inc, and used to pay legitimate grant-related expenses and to reimburse NYU employees for expenses and services, though without proper school oversight, the indictment said.
In a statement, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said that the scheme, which began in 2012, had harmed “our city’s minority- and women-owned business enterprises by denying them the chance to fairly compete for and secure the funding.”
Tappe is charged with money laundering, grand larceny, falsifying business records and other fraud charges.
Who is Cindy Tappe?
Cindy Tappe was the director of finance and research at New York University.
Cindy Tappe left New York University after her actions were discovered in 2018.
After leaving NYU, Tappe, 57, got a job at the Yale School of Medicine — with a bio on the school’s website lauding her as having “excellence in the Comprehensive knowledge of financial and grants and has effective leadership and team-building skills.”
Tappe, graduated from NYU Stern business school.
