Bergen County officials reported the arrest of Ms. Maribel Rios, 51, of Hasbrouck Heights on Money Laundering and Theft charges. The arrest resulted from an investigation conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office under Chief Jason Love and the Bogota Police Department under the direction of Chief Daniel Maye.
Officials said on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Financial Crimes Unit received information regarding an employee theft from a Bergen County-based carpentry business.
Officials said the investigation revealed that Rios acting in her capacity as a bookkeeper for the company in about a three-year period, had diverted approximately $1.1 million of company monies to her own personal control.
According to Bergen County officials, the defendant engaged in various schemes: manipulating the company payroll system to issue payroll deposits to “ghost employees,” issuing company checks to accounts belonging to or controlled by her and manipulating company accounting software to justify the checks.
Once the monies were diverted to accounts that the defendant controlled, the funds were depleted for personal expenses unrelated to what the company official said.