Family Sentenced for Embezzlement

A West Covina woman who authorities believe embezzled more than $500,000 from business owners was sentenced to three years in prison Friday and her husband and daughter received lesser sentences.

Diana Curavo, 54, and her husband, 42-year-old Jeffrey Curavo, surrendered at the Pasadena Courthouse, prosecutor Michael Grosbard said. Jeffrey Curavo was sentenced to two years in prison, and their daughter Cynthia Iwanaga, 35, was put on five years’ probation and ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution. The couple were ordered to repay $400,000.

Curavo worked for seven years as the bookkeeper for Rosemead’s Holst Painting and Decorating. After leaving that company she was hired by Sam’s Automotive in San Gabriel.

At each business, Curavo doctored the books to make it seem as though checks were being paid to creditors. Instead she doled out money to herself, her husband and their daughter. The scheme was not discovered until someone at the automotive store found checks that Diana Curavo had forged, Grosbard said.