A rogue tycoon from the city’s Department of Children’s Services who stole gift cards from poor children in the Big Apple avoided prison time with a sweet plea deal in Manhattan court Tuesday.
Former ACS executive director Courtney Ramirez, 51, has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery by a public servant, Manhattan prosecutors said. He initially pleaded guilty to a separate felony charge of third-degree grand larceny for the scheme.
If convicted of the first felony charge, she would have faced up to seven years in prison, but will now only have to repay the $4,900 she paid under the plea agreement.
As part of his defense, Ramirez forged the signatures of underprivileged children worth $350 each to increase his salary by more than $100,000 while overseeing programs at a city-run government agency. Admitted stealing 14 Visa gift cards.
She then used the gift cards to pay for her own personal expenses and buy gifts for others, prosecutors said.
Manhattan Borough Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement Tuesday that “Courtney Ramirez exploited her role at ACS with taxpayer-funded gifts intended to reward children who completed leadership programs. “I stole the card,” he said.
“She used her leadership position at an agency that seeks to help children facing great hardship and used that talent to her advantage.”
Ramirez’s plan unfolded in 2019 and 2020, when she was a central figure in ACS’s “Close to Home” program. The program aims to place young children ordered by family courts out of their homes and in communities close to home.
In that role, she was tasked with handing out gift cards to children in foster care and juvenile justice programs, prosecutors said.
But Ramirez forged false documents to make it appear the cards were given to the children, when in fact he was pocketing the cards for himself, prosecutors added. .
“This crime was discovered after another ACS employee reported to the DOI that the young man who purportedly signed the gift card did not receive the money,” Jocelyn Strauber, director of the city’s Bureau of Investigation, said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear what Ramirez distributed the gift cards for.
Under the plea agreement, Ramirez was ordered to repay the stolen money in exchange for a sentence of conditional release. This means Ramirez will be required to live a law-abiding life without being rearrested.
Ramirez left ACS in June after eight years, according to his LinkedIn page.
She is currently listed as the founder and principal consultant of ‘Task Strategist’. According to her LinkedIn profile, she describes herself as a “relentless champion of systems change.”
Ramirez’s attorney did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment Tuesday.
