ST. GEORGE — A Staten Island nurse, her fiancee and three other people scammed dozens of mostly elderly patients out of more than $675,000 to fund a lavish lifestyle — even posing as Hurricane Sandy victims to explain mysterious changes in the victims' accounts.
Amanda Zieminski, 26, of Staten Island, her fiancee Clyde Forteau, 29 and his brother Jerome Forteau, 25, of The Bronx, allegedly victimized 80 patients at South Shore Physicians, in Great Kills, since 2008.
District Attorney Dan Donovan said the trio used the loot to buy nearly $4,000 tickets to the 2012 NBA Eastern Conference finals game in Boston, a vacation to the Dominican Republic and to fly to Disney World in Florida, where Clyde Forteau and Zimenski got engaged at Cinderella’s castle.
“He’s no prince charming and she’s no Cinderella,” Donovan said at a press conference.
In pictures on his Facebook page, Clyde Forteau, who raps by the name C Money, was seen at the finals game, with former NFL player Aaron Hernandez was seated behind him.
“Clyde Forteau had better seats than Aaron Hernandez did,” Donovan said.
According to Donovan, Zieminski started to work at the doctor’s office in 2004 as a nurse, and in 2008 the owner received reports from patients who said their bank accounts were compromised. The doctor fully helped investigators, Donovan said.
Over the years, Zieminski swiped patient information from the office, which Forteau used to create debit cards in the victim’s names, make cash withdrawals from their accounts, and filing false tax returns to steal refunds from victims, Donovan said.
Forteau, who sometimes posed as a Hurricane Sandy victims to explain the change of address, had couriers, allegedly including Abdul Yousef, pick up the credit cards from several mailboxes in The Bronx.
The Forteaus, Zieminski and Yousef were arraigned on Wednesday and hit with charges including enterprise corruption and identity theft.
Another courier, Carmen Rivera, 52, of The Bronx, was charged with one count of identity theft, and Donovan said they expect to make more arrests in the case.
