“As alleged, the very person tasked with ensuring his employer’s compliance with laws and regulations broke them time after time to line his pockets at the company’s expense,” said District Attorney Bragg. “We hold people in positions of power – including sworn attorneys with solemn ethical obligations – to the highest standards and will not tolerate fraud at New York businesses’ expense.”

“Shatina Howell allegedly took advantage of tenants in the buildings she managed by breaking their trust and pocketing the money that was intended for rent. She abused her position of authority to exploit New Yorkers who are older adults, veterans, and disabled,” said District Attorney Bragg. “We urge anyone who believes they may be a victim of this sort of fraud to contact our Housing and Tenant Protection Unit at 212-335-3300 or Danyhousing@dany.nyc.gov.” 

“Cindy Tappe took advantage of her position as the NYU Director of Finance and Administration by diverting funds that were intended to benefit students for her own personal gain. Her fraudulent actions not only threatened to affect the quality of education for students with disabilities and multilingual students, but denied our city’s minority and women owned business enterprises a chance to fairly compete for funding,” said District Attorney Bragg. “In Manhattan, we will continue to root out fraud committed at the expense of our students and businesses. I thank the New York State Comptroller’s Office for its partnership in this investigation.”