School employee and husband stole $170K from NYC Department of Education, prosecutors say

A longtime New York City Department of Education (DOE) employee and her husband were sentenced after pleading guilty to stealing more than $170,000 from the agency through a fraudulent scheme involving fake purchase orders and invoices.

Rusnelly Clase, 42, a former community coordinator at Middle School 302 in the Bronx, was sentenced to six months in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. Her husband, Justin Echevarría, received five years of probation. Both pleaded guilty to government corruption charges on April 9.

According to prosecutors, between 2018 and February 2022, Clase used her access to the school’s procurement and accounting systems to register her husband and another accomplice as unauthorized DOE vendors. She then submitted fraudulent invoices and forged purchase orders for clothing items, approved the payments herself using unauthorized access, and directed more than $170,000 in DOE funds to the two men. Investigators said no merchandise was ever delivered, and both men returned a portion of the proceeds to Clase.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark said the stolen money should have gone toward educating students, while Special Commissioner of Investigation Anastasia Coleman said public school funds are “not a personal piggy bank” and vowed to continue pursuing fraud involving public resources.