Her neck’s on the line now.
A stunning young account executive at a high-powered PR firm took her specialty in jewelry a step too far — snatching $97,000 worth of baubles that had been on loan for photo shoots, authorities said yesterday.
Mallory Montilla — a budding fixture on the social circuit who has been photographed with such stars as Sarah Jessica Parker — was arrested Friday for the thefts, sources said.
The 24-year-old woman was busted while acting as a “jewelry account executive” at Whisper Public Relations, where part of her job was ensuring that the valuables on loan from designers made their way safely to magazine photo departments for editorial shoots.
But law-enforcement sources say that instead of shipping the jewelry via a bonded courier to the magazines, she simply kept it.
Whisper executives learned something was amiss when they discovered that two pieces of jewelry from famed designer Leslie Greene, including a $2,290 bracelet, were not in the firm’s safe, prompting them to track the pieces back to Montilla as the last person who had possession of them, sources said.
A total of $97,000 worth of jewelry was unaccounted for — all of which investigators charge was taken by Montilla. Confronted by her employer, Montilla said she would return the items but never did, sources said.
Montilla of West 24th Street could not be reached. Her lawyer, Brandi Hawkins, declined comment. Montilla was released on $5,000 bail after spending the weekend in jail, and is due back in court tomorrow.
Karly Klein, a co-owner of the public-relations firm, said Montilla was fired in mid-July — even before they noticed the missing jewelry.
“We felt that she wasn’t performing up to our standards around July 18,” Klein said. “After the termination, we noticed some inconsistencies in her reports, and we went straight to the police.”
Klein said Montilla worked for Whisper for about two years.