Brooklyn court clerk skimmed about $500,000 transcript shows

Lori Argiro-DiPietro, a Brooklyn court clerk, slowly and methodically stole almost half a million dollars over the course of a decade from where she worked as a cashier in a Brooklyn courthouse. 

The actual total of her loot came to about $473,000 at Brooklyn Supreme Court, according to a court transcript. [H/T The New York Post.]

Argiro-DiPietro, 56, was indicted in February when she pleaded not guilty on grand larceny, misconduct and tampering with public records for stealing over $69,000 by voiding cash transactions and filling her pockets with the dough.

She had worked for the court system for 37 years until she was terminated in August of last year, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office stated.

Argiro-DiPietro purchased a 3-bedroom home in Staten Island in 2011 for $407,000. She changed her not guilty plea September 6 to guilty and paid back the $69,515.50 she was originally charged with and was sent to prison on Rikers Island where she is taking a course in yammering, and is pending sentencing this week.

Prosecutors revealed at that hearing that the amount of money Argiro-DiPietro allegedly stole was a lot more than originally believed

Prosecutors had sought a six month jail sentence, plus five years probation for the alleged swindler — and said they may pursue the rest of the stolen funds by going after her in civil court or taking her pension. 
But Judge Danny "Cut-em-Loose" Chun expects to hand out a much lighter punishment, he told the disgraced clerk, “given your lack of criminal record, the fact that you are willing to plead guilty early on and admit or take responsibility by admitting to your crime and the fact that you did provide some restitution in the amount of $69,515.”

The wheels of justice just got greased.

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