Ex-city worker pleads guilty to stealing N.Y.C. 9/11 funds

An ex-worker at the city medical examiner's office pleaded guilty to accompanying her former boss with embezzling millions of dollars, some of which was intended to help identify Sept. 11 terrorist attack victims, authorities said.

Previously director of records at the medical examiner's office, Rosa Abreu may face a maximum 75 years in prison on charges of embezzlement, money laundering and conspiracy. She will be sentenced on Jan. 23, federal prosecutors said.

Abreu's co-defendant is her former boss, Natarajan Venkataran, who is scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 26.

Abreu was responsible for supporting computer systems used to track and identify forensic evidence, including DNA, from crime scenes, prosecutors said. After the Sept. 11 attack, the office needed more computer services to identify victims through evidence collected at ground zero.

The two, charged in 2005, steered over $13 million in computer service contracts and purchase orders between 1999 and 2004 in exchange for cash payments to companies that did little or no work, according to U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia.

They also transferred millions of dollars to three shell companies they created, withdrew cash and made payments to personal accounts and sent money overseas, prosecutors said.

Many of the office's Sept. 11-related expenses were reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which forwarded more than $46 million to the office in 2002 and 2003, federal authorities said.