Overview
- The Manhattan District Attorney and New York State Comptroller announced indictments Tuesday charging Cadelie Neat, Cheryl Carr, and Andrea Williams in two separate frauds totaling about $998,529.
- Prosecutors say Neat, a longtime accounts payable manager at John Jay College, submitted more than 260 fake or altered stipend requests between December 2018 and April 2026 that produced roughly $710,000 in checks mailed to her home and deposited at ATMs.
- In the separate case, authorities allege Carr and Williams created an Idaho company with a nearly identical name to a Harlem Children’s Zone charter and diverted two checks totaling $288,529 into accounts the duo controlled after the entity was formed in September 2023.
- Both matters were investigated by the State Comptroller’s Division of Investigations and referred to the Manhattan D.A.’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau for prosecution; the charges are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent.
- The alleged schemes redirected money meant for students and charter schools, prompting John Jay to say it is cooperating with investigators and raising questions about controls over stipend issuance and charter payment verification that could trigger audits or tighter oversight.