By Gus Saltonstall
An Upper West Side doorman is accused of stealing nearly $500,000 from a retired New York City schoolteacher who lived in the building where he was employed, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release on Wednesday.
Alfredo Mateo, 38, was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, identity theft, and more, according to the release. The charges are related to Mateo allegedly stealing $477,685 from the retired teacher, who was not named in the indictment to protect her identity, the release said.
For the duration of the fraud, which began in the fall of 2022, the teacher resided in a nursing home, where she lived under a court-ordered guardianship as an incapacitated person, according to legal documents. Her husband, though, remained in their apartment at 380 Riverside Drive, between West 110th and 111th streets, until his death on September 1, 2022, according to legal records.
The next day, on September 2, 2022, Mateo, who worked at the Riverside Drive address, deposited the first of 26 checks he stole from the teacher, the DA’s release reported. He wrote most of the checks to himself from the teacher’s bank account, before depositing them into his personal account, according to the indictment.
In addition to depleting the couple’s bank accounts, Mateo also began to steal from the teacher’s annuity and pension by taking forms mailed to the apartment building, falsifying them, and then submitting the falsified forms to the Teachers’ Retirement System of New York City, trying to trigger a payout,” the indictment stated.
Two of these forms were submitted after the teacher died at the age of 91 in July of 2023, however, which raised red flags in the organization. Mateo also stole several pension checks that had been mailed to the teacher after her death, the DA’s release added.
The doorman went as far as calling the Teachers’ Retirement System and attempting to change his voice to sound like an older woman, the DA’s Office said.
“As alleged, Alfredo Mateo abused his access as a doorman to deplete the financial accounts of a retired teacher who was living in a nursing home, and her husband, who had recently passed away,” District Attorney Alivin Bragg said in a news release. “Those who take advantage of the access entrusted in them to target older community members and steal from hardworking New Yorkers will be held accountable.”
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How awful ☹️ so glad he was found out
I have decades of experience working in commercial lending, and we get extensive training in elder abuse. I do not see how the banks allowed this to go on for so many years.
But they did, which means, they do.
Unless I’m missing something, it appears that this started in the fall of 2022 and ended in the summer of 2023. That’s a LOT of checks for such a short period of time. I’d be interested to know if a 3rd party was looking after the couple’s finances, and who was paying for the nursing home. None of this makes sense.
Agree. Was no one watching the store? Apparently not. Or was the person also involved in the theft of so much money? Did this couple not have any relatives or friends?? something about this story does not add up.
This sad story is an urgent call-out for all people in or approaching (or even contemplating) old age to designate a trusted Power of Attorney as well as documents such as Medical Power of Attorney, Living Will, etc. Organizations including NYLAG (New York Legal Assistance Group) can help. If you retain competency over your lifetime you’ll never need to use such documents, but if you become unable to handle your own financial affairs properly, they can help protect you from predators like Mateo.
How awful. What a heartless criminal. He gives a bad name and raises suspicion to many hard working, trust worthy, honest doormen and building support personnel. One wonders who was watching the store, so to speak, of an already vulnerable woman, who was under guardianship. Whose? Where were they? What responsibility to they bear for not doing THEIR job to protect a vulnerable elder from Elder Abuse?
Seems quite plausible to me that this could happen to elderly residents.
Mike UWS: What’s the point of your gratuitous, ad hominem attack on the Manhattan D.A.?
And How/Will he be held accountable?
Seems to me this crime was easy to commit. The article tells us so. And it tells future criminals.
If we don’t hear about the case again, one can only assume it is still open season on the elderly.
There’s a Bad Moon Rising. Nothing new under the sun.
What is government going to do about this crisis?
Hideous. Give this dickhead the max
As reply button still does not work…
Carmella Ombrella wrote:
“This sad story is an urgent call-out for all people in or approaching (or even contemplating) old age to designate a trusted Power of Attorney as well as documents such as Medical Power of Attorney, Living Will, etc. Organizations including NYLAG (New York Legal Assistance Group) can help. If you retain competency over your lifetime you’ll never need to use such documents, but if you become unable to handle your own financial affairs properly, they can help protect you from predators like Mateo.”
Victim (retired teacher) was deemed “incapacitated” and placed under court appointed guardianship. If she and and husband had made arrangements suggested in quoted text above then court would first turn to person or persons named holding power of attorney as Guardianship of An Incapacitated Person (Article 81 Guardianship). If no such person(s) were named, nor any other family or friends were willing to become legal guardians then court will appoint a “stranger”.
No matter how one looks at things NYS’s guardian system is in a shambles. It is not unheard of (and sadly rather common) for those either given power of attorney or placed under supervision of a guardian to do pretty much same as Mateo
https://www.nycourts.gov/courthelp/guardianship/AIP.shtml
https://www.propublica.org/series/the-unbefriended
Someone (guardian, holder of power of attorney, whoever) should have noticed early on those 26 checks that victim couldn’t possibly have written. If am understanding events correct it was teachers retirement fund supervisors/inspectors that smelled a rat and started investigation.
I wonder what else he stole from the apartment. I cannot fathom how anyone would think he would get away with this. What a heartless bastard.
My Stepmother’s godson and his girlfriend attempted the same act. Luckily I caught on before any funds were stolen but JP Morgan Chase refused to press charges