A bookkeeper charged with embezzling millions from a Queens company she had previously scammed lost nearly all the money on gambling and lottery tickets, family members said yesterday.
“She has a gambling problem,” said a niece of Maria Villa.
The niece, who asked her name be withheld, said she accompanied Villa on weekend trips to Atlantic City where the casinos put them up in suites and chauffeured them around in limos.
Villa, 49, took the trips at least twice a month and lost more than $20,000 each time at the casinos’ card tables or slot machines, she said.
The niece said Villa gave her a $60,000 Mercedes and more gifts to other family members.
Between trips to Atlantic City, Villa spent thousands of dollars at a time on lottery tickets, she said.
“She needs help. She doesn’t need to be locked up,” the niece said.
Villa skimmed $2,000 to $23,000 a week for a year and a half from P.S. Marcato Elevator in Long Island City and had the money wired to her private Chase bank account, authorities said.
The embezzlement wasn’t discovered until the company hired an outside accountant to explain whey it was suddenly going broke.
Family members knew Villa had been convicted of taking $100,000 from the same firm 14 years ago but never questioned how she could afford the gambling losses – or the lavish gifts she bestowed on them.
“We just thought she was the lucky aunt,” said the niece, who was headed to visit Villa on Rikers Island.
There was no immediate explanation as to why the woman was rehired by the same company after her conviction.
Prosecutors said Villa, of East Elmhurst, Queens, made a written confession in which he said she acted alone in skimming the money.
Court records said she took at least $2.3 million between November 2000 and June 2002. But at her arraignment Thursday, prosecutors said the scam had been going on for more than two years and more money may have been taken.
“She was always gambling and buying gifts. We thought she was just lucky,” the niece said.
“The fact that she did this before shows that she has a problem and isn’t getting help.”
Prosecutors said the embezzlement had brought the company, which does elevator maintenance, to the brink of bankruptcy. Company officials refused comment yesterday.
Villa was charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records. She is being held without bail and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.