The nefarious empire of drug dealing, extortion and fraud led by high-profile Staten Island businessman Ettore Mazzei took a profound human toll on the community — including one local woman he even victimized after her death. Kristen Maher was the former girlfriend of Rudy Santana, 42, who was indicted alongside Mazzei Wednesday for obtaining her account information and then fraudulently transferring $30,000 out of her bank account, prosecutors said. The theft, prosecutors said, began five months after she’d died at age 38 of a drug overdose in November 2022.
“People take advantage of people all the time. She was an easy target and they knew it,” said a longtime neighbor of Maher. “It’s sad.
The whole thing is just sad.” Mazzei, 61, and Santana were indicted on charges of grand larceny, identity theft and unlawful possession of personal identification for the scheme. The pair have also been accused of making credit card purchases, falsely reporting them as fraudulent and then receiving reimbursement from the credit card companies, court records show.
Maher was one of many victims caught in Mazzei’s labyrinth of crime, prosecutors said. Mazzei, described by Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon as a “poison purveyor”, is also accused of selling 20 grams of heroin, 461 grams of cocaine, and 140 Suboxone strips, which are used to treat opioid addiction, to undercover cops over a 14-month period beginning in March 2023. Authorities have linked Mazz.