Bookkeeper Charged with Stealing $50K from Great Neck Employer

Rice: Douglin paid personal expenses with company credit card

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that the former bookkeeper for a Great Neck foot care company has been charged with putting more than $50,000 in personal expenses on the company credit card, including trips to the nail salon and child support payments.

Susan Polanco Douglin, 31, of Goose Creek, South Carolina, was arrested this morning and charged with Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. She is scheduled to be arraigned later today in First District Court, Hempstead.

Rice said that between 2005 and early 2009, Douglin used five company credit cards to charge more than $50,000 in personal expenses to her employer, Tripod Labs, Inc., a company that makes and sells a line of foot care creams. Douglin charged to the credit card trips to the nail salon and liquor store, as well as vacations, car rentals, and child support payments. She then attempted to cover her tracks by altering the company’s books.

The theft was discovered when the Tripod Labs’ CEO and co-owner noticed the company was spending far more on its credit card bills than usual. An internal investigation revealed many of the charges were for Douglin’s personal expenses.

“Our small businesses are struggling more than ever, and the people of Great Neck deserve to be protected from someone preying on a locally-owned business,” Rice said. “Ms. Douglin, however, thought nothing of betraying the trust of her employer. Such a betrayal will not be tolerated by my office.” 

Assistant District Attorney Megan Gallagher of the Government & Consumer Frauds Bureau is handling the case for the DA’s Office.

The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.