Assistant Dean Embezzled Over a Million from Seton Hall Law School
Teresina DeAlmeida will serve 36 months in prison after embezzling more than $1 million from Seton Hall Law School.
DeAlmeida was the first to be sentenced for the years-long scheme after she pleaded guilty in July 2024. In addition to her prison term, DeAlmeida will pay $1,397,920 in restitution, according to the court’s judgment.
The original plea deal offered by prosecutors to DeAlmeida stated that she was to serve no more than two years with a deadline of July 14 to accept the agreement. DeAlmeida didn’t accept the plea until July 26 and received three years.
Employer Credit Card Holder
DeAlmeida was the assistant dean of Seton Hall Law School in Newark, N.J., where she held the school credit card and could approve certain expenditures, according to the charging documents. Cardoso and Martins also worked at the school as support staff.
In 2015, Martins created the shell company CMS Content Management Specialist LLC, which generated no services to the school, according to the charge documents. Despite not rendering services, Martins invoiced Seton Hall for charges DeAlmeida approved. Martins charged about $208,000 between 2015 and 2022, which she used for personal gain.
Gift Card Scheme
DeAlmeida and Martins also ran a gift card scheme where they instructed school vendors to purchase and give them gift cards and prepaid debit cards, then bill the school for services in the same amount they spent on the cards, according to the charge documents. DeAlmeida then approved the vendors’ fraudulent invoices.
From November 2010 to July 2011, DeAlmeida and Martins embezzled $63,000 with this scheme through one vendor and $417,000 through another between 2009 and 2022, say prosecutors.
DeAlmeida also instructed Martins to use the school credit card to purchase thousands of gift cards from the school bookstore between 2017 and 2022. DeAlmeida approved the purchases of $200,000 worth of gift cards from the university bookstore.
DeAlmeida also had vendors invoice the school for reimbursement of periodic payments to Martins and Cardoso, even though there was no exchange of services rendered to the vendors by the two employees, according to the charge documents. Martins and Cardoso were paid $220,000 in this scam.
DeAlmeida and Martins used DeAlmeida’s school credit card to purchase $70,000 worth of personal items like shoes, bed linens, smartwatches and other personal items at online retailers, according to the charge documents. The items were shipped to DeAlmeida and Martins’ residents, and DeAlmeida altered the school’s financial statements to cover up the fraud.
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