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Westborough woman charged with stealing to fund lavish lifestyle

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 9, 2009 05:00 PM

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

A Westborough accountant was arrested Wednesday on charges that she stole more than $750,000 from an environmental engineering company in Boston's Brighton section, splurging the money on a lavish lifestyle, the Suffolk district attorney's office said.

Cynthia Goldberg

Cynthia Goldberg, 46, who also used the last names Kussy and McDonnell, was arrested after a grand jury issued a 20-count indictment that alleges 10 counts of larceny over $250, five counts of making false entries in corporate books, and five counts of misusing a credit card for more than $250.

Goldberg pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court. Clerk Magistrate Gary D. Wilson set her bail at $25,000 and ordered Goldberg to surrender her passport and wear a GPS monitoring bracelet until the case is resolved. Her attorneys did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

"As galling as the theft itself is the nature of what she purchased," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley in a statement. "This was not someone of modest means who stole to make rent. This was someone who fraudulently billed extravagant expenses to a local business."

Goldberg, who earned $40 an hour as an accountant, allegedly used corporate credit cards, wrote corporate checks to herself, and used the company's information to obtain her own line of credit. She allegedly went on shopping sprees to businesses including Petco, Victoria's Secret, the Ritz Carlton hotel, and local tanning salons. She allegedly obtained three credit cards in the name of the business and its chief executive.

Assistant District Attorney David Bradley, a prosecutor in the DA's major felony bureau, conducted a seven-month investigation and determined that Goldberg embezzled $752,245.64 over five years working for FSL Associates. She was fired in 2007 when her vendors complained to her employer that they had not been paid for services, prompting a review of Goldberg's accounting.

On The Beat

Reporter John R. Ellement is in Somerville District Court, where two former youth soccer coaches are accused of raping one of their 13-year-old players.