Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday that a Woodside woman was indicted for allegedly stealing death benefits from union members and their families with seven co-defendants, half of them from Florida. File photo courtesy of DA’s office
Sept. 12, 2024 By Bill Parry
A Woodside woman is accused of being the criminal mastermind of a ring that allegedly stole more than $180,000 in death benefits from union members and their next of kin, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Wednesday.
Catherine Wenzell-Reyes, 36, was arrested by members of the Queens DA Detective Bureau in March, and she was named in a 55-count indictment charging her and seven co-defendants with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, and other related crimes for stealing the death benefits intended for the beneficiaries of United Service Workers Union Local 74 workers.
Wenzell-Reyes, aka Cathy Reyes, worked at the union headquarters at 36-36 33rd St. in Long Island City between December 2017 and February 2022, where she was tasked with processing members’ life insurance policies, according to the charges.
USWU Local 71 represents service workers, including school employees and cemetery workers. Once a member died, she submitted life insurance forms to the insurance company. The form specified the beneficiary listed by the union member as the intended recipient. The insurance company then paid out the benefit via check in the beneficiary’s name.
In April 2022, the next of kin of a deceased union member reached out to the Queens District Attorney’s Office with concerns regarding the member’s life insurance policy. The victim said her brother worked as a custodian at a Long Island school district and died in 2021, and had listed her as the beneficiary on his policy. Still, the insurance company had paid out the benefit to a stranger. The victim further stipulated that the fraudulent claim form was submitted to the insurance company before the member’s death certificate was received by the family.
An investigation was launched by the District Attorney’s Frauds Bureau. Evidence gathered revealed that on at least seven different occasions between 2017 and 2022, Wenzell-Reyes allegedly submitted fraudulent documents to the insurance company that did not list the intended beneficiary named by the union members when they originally filled out the form.
Eight death benefit checks were issued to the seven co-defendants, who were unknown to the deceased members or their families.
In one instance, a co-defendant received a death benefit check in the amount of $30,000. Upon cashing the check, the co-defendant split $3,000 with a conspirator via a CashApp transaction and gave $27,000 to Wenzell-Reyes.
The total amount that was paid out over eight different cases for seven deceased members is approximately $181,900, according to the charges.
“Hard-working union members trusted that their life insurance policy would be paid out to their grieving loved ones upon their death,” Katz said. “Instead, union worker Catherine Wenzell-Reyes and her co-defendants allegedly engineered a stolen death benefit scheme and routed money from the union members’ intended recipients to line their own pockets.”
Wenzell-Reyes is scheduled to be arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on Sept. 20 and faces up to 5 to 15 years in prison. Co-defendant Damaris Cuadrado, 37, of Ridgewood, was arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on Thursday and ordered to return to court on Nov. 13. She faces up to 2 ⅓ to 7 years in prison.
Four of the co-defendants were rounded up by local law enforcement in Sanford, Florida on Sept. 4 and extradited to Queens on Monday. Carmen Rivera, 57, and her daughter Macey Diaz, 24, and Jordan Molina, 33, all face 5 to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top count. Molina’s wife, Jessica Aguilar, 26, faces 2 ⅓ to 7 years in prison. The four were arraigned Wednesday before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gary Minet, who ordered them to return to court on Oct. 28.
Rivera’s son, Michael Diaz, 36, of St. Cloud, Florida, was arrested by members of law enforcement in Florida on Sept. 4 and is expected to be extradited to Queens and arraigned soon. Diaz faces 5 to 15 years in prison if convicted on the top count.
“I thank the victims for courageously coming forward as we work to hold the defendants responsible for the alleged criminal conduct,” Katz said.
One other co-defendant is still being sought.
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