An ex-bookkeeper for the Delaware River waterfront agency admitted to stealing $2.6M to gamble and go on vacation
Angela DiPietro-Sabatine, 57, of Pennsauken, has agreed to spend roughly five years in prison under the terms of an agreement with prosecutors. A judge has yet to decide whether to accept the deal.
A former bookkeeper for the government-backed nonprofit that manages Penn’s Landing, Spruce Street Harbor Park, and other riverfront attractions agreed Friday to spend roughly five years in prison after admitting to embezzling more than $2.6 million from the organization.
Angela DiPietro-Sabatine, who managed the finances of the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. from 1996 to 2019, told a federal judge she took the money to fuel a gambling habit and to fund resort vacations in the Bahamas and Hawaii.
Though she agreed to pay back the money she stole, plead guilty to counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and struck a deal with prosecutors to ensure they would recommend she spend no more than 65 months in prison, it will be up to U.S. District Judge Joshua D. Wolson to decide whether to accept those terms at her sentencing hearing in May.
Prosecutors say DiPietro-Sabatine, 57, of Pennsauken, regularly used her access to the DRWC’s books to draw up fake invoices, cut checks payable to herself, and forge signatures of nonprofit executives so she could transfer money into her account.
Because she allegedly listed the withdrawals as payments to legitimate vendors, the organization’s auditors failed to notice the missing money for at least seven years.
They discovered the false payments after DiPietro-Sabatine was fired for what the nonprofit described as “unrelated performance issues” and she was no longer there to explain the discrepancies away.
Appearing in court Friday, DiPietro spoke softly as Wolson ran her through a series of basic questions to ensure she understood the terms of her plea agreement.
She struggled to speak up as prosecutors laid out their case against her, and the judge asked whether they had accurately described what she’d done.
“Pretty much,” she said haltingly.
Her attorney, Nino V. Tinari, said little in court during Friday’s hearing and did not immediately respond to requests for comment afterward.
Prosecutors have previously said DiPietro-Sabatine spent at least $10,000 of her ill-gotten cash at area casinos each month. In one instance, she allegedly lost more than $34,000 during a 2017 gambling trip to California.
The rest purportedly went toward trips to Lake Tahoe, Disney World, the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, and the Hawaiian Disney Resort.
At the time of DiPietro-Sabatine’s arrest in April, an agency spokesperson said that the theft, while significant, is not expected to impact DRWC’s future operations because it was spread out over several years.
The nonprofit has vowed to shore up its financial controls to prevent similar employee thefts in the future .
The DRWC was established to develop the publicly owned waterfront land between Oregon and Allegheny Avenues. The nonprofit launched and manages several recreational destinations such as Penn’s Landing, the Spruce Street Harbor Park, and the Blue Cross RiverRink festivals.