Naples woman charged in alleged million-dollar fraud scheme involving jewelry, profits

A Naples woman who formerly helped run a family-owned boutique in Olde Naples is facing multiple felony charges, accused of a million-dollar fraud scheme.

Yulia Yugay, 44, was arrested Monday on a warrant listing first-degree felony charges of fraud, theft and criminal use of personal identification that stemmed from an investigation by Naples police that started in October 2020. The fraud and thefts began in 2017, court documents said.

The investigation began after the owners of the family-owned Marissa Collections boutique in the city's downtown business district reported that Yugay, their former chief operations officer, exploited her position and created a fraudulent account using a client’s personal information, without the client's consent or knowledge.

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Information from Naples police said Yugay used the account for personal gains by:

• Creating fraudulent jewelry orders where she benefited from the sales,

commissions, and bonuses from the fake orders, but kept the jewelry.

• Crediting her personal credit card over $50,000 utilizing false returns under the fraudulent customer account.

• Stealing cash deposits totaling over $10,000.

Information from court documents said that Yugay used the scheme to deprived the business of profits from ordered jewelry totaling over $400,000.

She allegedly also billed over $600,000 to the fraudulent store house account, in the name of the client.

Court documents said Yugay had been with the store since 2006 and had forged a close bond with the owners.

The owners told police that Yugay had made some restitution and returned some jewelry but that many of the items could not be resold since they were in odd sizes using inferior gems set in unusual designs.

Information in court documents said that Yugay wrote a confession to the owners in October 2018 and trained a replacement. She eventually stopped showing up for work, the court information said, and ended cooperation with an audit of the losses in December 2018.

Yugay was arrested and released on bond Monday with her arraignment is scheduled Aug. 1.

Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Former Marissa Collections employee faces fraud, theft charges