Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a married Yonkers couple were sentenced for their roles in a fraudulent scheme that netted them and a co-conspirator more than $170,000 in illicit proceeds from the New York City Department of Education.
District Attorney Clark said, “The female defendant, a longtime employee with the New York City Department of Education used her position to falsify purchase orders. She engaged her husband and a friend in this crime of greed that stole more than $170,000, money that should
have been used for the education of our schoolchildren. I would like to thank our law enforcement partners at SCI who worked with our Financial Frauds Bureau in this investigation.”
District Attorney Clark said defendant Rusnelly Clase, 42, was today sentenced to six months in prison with five years’ post-release supervision and defendant Justin Echevarria, 38, was today sentenced to five years’ probation before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven
Horsntein.
The pair pleaded guilty to fourth degree Corrupting the Government on April 9, 2026.
To date Clase has paid $50,000 in restitution. She’s been ordered to pay an additional $36, 654.88.
Echevarria was also ordered to pay $47,448.63.
Special Commissioner Anastasia Anastasia Coleman said, “The New York City public school system is not a personal piggy bank. Every dollar stolen from our schools is a dollar taken away from New York City’s students. SCI will continue holding accountable anyone who exploits
their public position and misuses resources that belong in our classrooms. We like to thank the DA’s Financial Frauds Bureau for working closely with our investigators on this important matter.”
According to the investigation, from 2018 through February of 2022, Clase, a community coordinator with Middle School 302 in Longwood for over ten years, used her access to the school’s procurement and accounting systems to register her husband and another co-conspirator
as non-contracted vendors with the New York City Department of Education.
Clase filed a substantial number of fraudulent vendor invoices, along with falsified purchase orders for clothing such as sweatshirts, shorts, t-shirts, and jackets. Clase then used unauthorized access to approve the invoices and trigger over $90,000 in fraudulent payments to
her husband and $75,000 in fraudulent payments to the other co-conspirator, both of whom “kicked back” some of the illicit proceeds to Clase. No items were ever delivered.