A former city law department mailroom employee has confessed to stealing and depositing more than half a million dollars in checks from work over an extended period of time.
On Monday, federal prosecutors stated that Brandon Santanoo, 27, admitted to stealing and depositing $600,000 in checks.
Santanoo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, as reported by Damien Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“Brandon Santanoo abused his position of trust as a city employee,” Williams said. “As he admitted today in federal court, he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of checks made payable to the Law Department and passed them along to others to fraudulently deposit. We will not tolerate any breach of trust or corruption within city agencies.”
Beginning in 2017, Santanoo worked as a clerk in the mailroom at the Law Department’s office in Brooklyn. By virtue of his position, Santanoo had access to mail that was sent to the Law Department.
Prosecutors said that from June 2021 to at least May 2023, Santanoo stole checks that he then passed to other people who would deposit them–or attempted to deposit forged or altered versions of those checks–into third party accounts.
In total, Santanoo stole around 40 checks payable to the law department, including ones to the worker’s compensation division, which administers claims of city workers who have been injured on the job, prosecutors said.
“Brandon, as a very young man, made some bad decisions working at the city. [He] immediately accepted responsibility for his actions and is doing everything in his power to now make that right,” Jeff Chabrowe, Santanoo’s lawyer, reported to the Gothamist on Monday.
Santanoo is scheduled for sentencing on September 4th of this year.
