Nassau DA: Former Pediatric Practice Employee Indicted for Embezzling Over $3,000,000

LongIsland.com

Peter Singh of Selden, 42, arranged fraudulent raises for himself and added family members to the payroll, DA Singas said.

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Nassau DA Singas reports the arraignment of Peter Singh of Selden, 43, for Grand Larceny.

Photo by: Nassau County Police Department

Mineola, NY - June 27, 2018 - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Selden man has been arraigned on grand jury indictment charges for allegedly embezzling more than $3,000,000 from Five Town Pediatrics, PC, a local pediatric practice in Woodmere and Bellmore.
 
Peter Singh, 42, was arraigned today before Acting Supreme Court Justice Patricia Harrington and charged with Grand Larceny in the First Degree (a B felony), Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree (an E felony) and eight counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree (an E felony). Bail was continued at $100,000 bond or $50,000 cash and the defendant is due back in court July 16. If convicted of the top charge, he faces 8-1/3 to 25 years in prison.
 
“This defendant abused the trust placed in him by the pediatricians he worked for and stole more than $3 million by inflating his salary and making bogus payments to his wife and others,” DA Singas said. “As technology increasingly automates business functions, fraud and abuse obscured by human deception remains difficult to detect. I am grateful to the NCPD and Five Towns Pediatrics for their assistance investigating this case.”
 
DA Singas said in 2010, the defendant was an employee of Five Town Pediatrics, PC, and was promoted to practice administrator. As practice administrator, he was given unsupervised control over the practice’s human resources functions, including payroll, 401K administration, and the hiring support staff. His thefts went undetected for years despite investigations by the practice’s previous accountants.
 
Between 2010 and January 2018 he allegedly increased his salary by $1,126,800, paid his wife who was never an employee $1,726,791, paid his step-daughter, who was also never an employee, $136,053 and another company, RSS of NY, which he was a signatory on, $29,602. During this same time, Singh allegedly used the practice’s bank account to live beyond his means, including payments for a high-end Lexus, and to repay loans from his own 401K account, totaling $83,517. In total, the practice lost $3,102,764.
 
In January 2018, after noticing discrepancies in their finances, the physician owners hired a forensic accountant and bookkeeper who uncovered the embezzlement. The case was referred to the Nassau County Police Department’s Robbery Squad which jointly investigated the case with the NCDA’s Financial Crimes Bureau. The defendant was arrested on May 15 by the NCPD’s Robbery Squad.
 
No patient identification information was compromised during the alleged embezzlement. The defendant was terminated from his position in February 2018.
 
Senior Assistant District Attorney April Montgomery of DA Singas’ Financial Crimes Bureau, is prosecuting this case. The defendant is represented by Scott Limmer, Esq.
 
A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.