New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and Westchester County District Attorney Susan Cacace announced that two former officials at the Greenburgh-Graham Union Free School District, which serves at-risk students from kindergarten to 12th grade, were arraigned this week on an indictment charging them with multiple public corruption offenses.
Oliver Levy, the district’s former superintendent, and Surendra Kumar, a former security system specialist, were arraigned Wednesday before Westchester County Court Judge Anne Bianchi on the charges of Second-Degree and Third-Degree Grand Larceny as Crimes of Public Corruption, Second-Degree and Third-Degree Grand Larceny, and Corrupting the Government in the Second and Third Degrees.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
As alleged in the felony complaint, Oliver Levy, who began as a teaching assistant in 2008 and was promoted to Superintendent in 2018, aided, abetted, and acted in concert with Surendra Kumar, then a security system specialist, to purchase 168 gift cards between July 2018 and June 2022.
Instead of spending the full sum of these funds on school-related expenses, the defendants are accused of diverting over $50,000 from the gift cards to personal expenses, such as jewelry, luxury handbags, private school fees for relatives, and veterinary services.
Levy, 55, of Stony Point, and Kumar, 48, of Yonkers, were arrested in May 2024 by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. They have been released on their own recognizance. None of the charges is bail-eligible.
The top charge, Second-Degree Grand Larceny as a Crime of Public Corruption, carries a maximum potential sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Have all the Finger Lakes news from Finger Lakes News Radio delivered to your email every morning for FREE! Sign up by clicking here
