A high-living accountant used his daughter’s college fund in an elaborate scheme to steal more than $1 million from his Long Island firm to bankroll his cocaine and gambling addiction, authorities said.
Steven Rubenoff, 47, faces up to 9 years in jail after pleading guilty to grand larceny in the first degree Thursday.
Rubenoff was working for DV Capital LP in Lake Success – a firm connected to Arizona Iced Tea co-founder Don Vultaggio – when he devised a plan to siphon money.
Over a two-week period in 2007, he funneled $1.16 million from the firm’s accounts into his daughter’s college fund in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $90,000, Nassau County prosecutors said.
Then he moved the money into an account controlled by his own tax and consulting service to finance his drug and gambling problem, they said.
Since his arrest in February, Rubenoff has paid back $450,000 and expects to work out an agreement for another $500,000 in restitution, said his lawyer, William Kephart.