DA: Five Welfare Cheats Bilked System Of $500K
Posted on Thursday, 25 of September , 2008 at 8:03 pm
BROOKLYN—Five alleged welfare cheats, who Kings County district attorney Charles J. Hayes says bilked the city’s social safety net for more than $500,000, have been indicted.
Among those charged is the owner of a clothing company, a real estate industry executive, and a couple who received rental assistance payments, to rent the home they actually own and share, while the wife traveled around the world.
Between 2002 and 2007, one couple is charged with stealing approximately $360,000 in welfare benefits from the NYC Human Resources Administration. According to their indictment, Marina Gavrielova, 36, and Arkadiy Abramov, 39, concealed the fact that they lived together and had children in common for five years so they could collect welfare to pay for childcare, rent, health care and food stamps, none of which they actually qualified for.
Passport stamps and travel receipts indicate that, while Gavrielova claimed to lack the income to support her family, she traveled to such far-flung locales as Mexico, Italy, and multiple destinations in the Caribbean.
Prosecutors say that in order to carry out the ruse, Gavrielova claimed on applications for welfare benefits that she was a single mother renting her apartment from Abramov, whom she claimed no connection to. However, Abramov is the father of Gavrielova’s children and supports his family driving a limousine he owns, through which he earned up to $98,000 annually, during the time Gavrielova collected welfare benefits. He also owns the home he lives in with Gavrielova and their children, which she collected welfare assistance to “rent” from him.
Charges against them include second degree grand larceny, first degree offering a false instrument for filing and second degree welfare fraud. They face up to 15 years in prison, if convicted.
Also charged in the sweep is Vlastimir Matorkik, 41, a banquet server for the Westin Hotel in Times Square. He is charged with applying for – and accepting – $37,000 in Medicaid benefits for himself and his wife, over a five year period ending in June 30. During that time, he earned more than $200,000 annually. Matorkik is charged with third degree grand larceny and third degree welfare fraud. If convicted he faces up to seven years in prison.
Richard Greenstein, 41, earned more than $300,000 in 2007, as a real estate title insurance sales executive, on Long Island, prosecutors say. He is charged with stealing more than $89,000 in welfare payments Food Stamps and Medicaid benefits, from January 2005 to May 2008. Charges against him include second degree welfare fraud, second degree grand larcency and five counts of first degree offering a false instrument for filing. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Shalom Mizrahi, 33, is the owner and president of a successful women’s loungewear company with an office in the Empire State Building. He is charged with filing false documents and illegally collecting more than $34,000 in Medicaid, over a three-year period, between January 2005 and May 2008.
Charges against Mizrahi include third degree grand larceny, first degree offering a false instrument and third degree welfare fraud. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison. 9-25-08
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