A 58-year-old man who used to work as a bursar at City College of New York has been accused of stealing more than 900 checks from students, according to prosecutors.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced Tuesday that Joseph Boselli of Hartsdale was charged with grand larceny, scheme to defraud and offering a false instrument for filing after Boselli allegedly pocketed nearly $500,000 in scholarships and other financial awards for approximately 700 students from 2012 to 2019.
According to the criminal complaint, Boselli began working at CCNY in October 2011 and his alleged scheme began in August 2012. The checks he is accused of stealing from students were as little as $4 and as much as $3,318.
When several students contacted the bursar and asked about the status of the money owed to them, Boselli told them that an investigation into their missing checks was underway, the complaint said. He provided at least two of those students another check from the City College Fund, a now-defunct non-profit that provided financial rewards to students.
On many of the original checks, Boselli allegedly forged student signatures and some of the checks had “pay to the order of Joseph Boselli" written on them.
Prosecutors said Boselli deposited the stolen checks into his personal bank accounts through an ATM and used that money for flights to San Francisco, Jacksonville, Florida, and Italy. He also spent it on hotels in Aruba and Milan and bought luxury items and jewelry at Gucci, Luxury Goods Italia S.P.A and Blue Nile LLC.
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“Many New Yorkers who take advantage of the world-class public education at their doorsteps still face enormous financial burdens thanks to the high cost of living here,” District Attorney Vance said in a statement. “The last thing students and their families need to worry about is university employees stealing money that is rightfully owed to them."
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It's unclear if Boselli has obtained a representative who can speak about the charges on his behalf.