A former employee of the Elise Flagg Academy of Dance in Geneva has been charged with stealing over $100,000 from the business, officials said.
Desiree Cortez, 47, of Geneva, is accused of stealing somewhere between $146,000 and $160,000 from the dance studio at 9 N. Fourth St. between June 2022 and March 2024, according to officials.
She has been charged with theft over $100,000 but under $500,000, financial exploitation of an elderly person over $50,000; and financial exploitation over $15,000 of a victim over 70 years old, court documents show.
Cortez is set to appear before Kane County Judge John Barsanti on Thursday for a preliminary hearing. Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
After being hired in January 2021, Cortez worked as the studio’s accountant and had full control over the business’ finances and payroll until she was fired this past January, a Geneva police report said.
According to police, the dance studio’s owner, Elise Flagg, 72, had no background in business or finances and so handed over financial control to Cortez so Flagg could focus on the dancing part of the business.
While Cortez worked at the Elise Flagg Academy of Dance, she is accused of using the academy’s financial accounts for personal gain, sometimes through direct payments to herself and other times by paying for personal expenses with the business’ funds, according to the police report.
Cortez also convinced Flagg to start putting her Social Security checks into one of the business’ accounts while Cortez was taking money from the same account, according to the report.
According to police, the investigation also indicates that Cortez was listed as the only agent of the business’ main bank account and as the president of the business with the Illinois Office of the Secretary of State despite Flagg being the founder and owner of the studio.
It is alleged that one of the ways Cortez took money from the business was through Zelle, a digital payment platform.
Cortez stopped paying employees through the academy’s payroll system and instead started paying them through Zelle, while also paying herself significantly more than her $1,000 a week salary, the police report said.
Between June 2022 and March 2024, in total, Cortez is accused of using Zelle to pay herself over $216,000 from bank accounts associated with the dance academy, according to the police report.
Cortez also received $19,428 through the business’ payroll during the same time period, the report said.
With her $1,000 a week salary, Cortez should have received just $98,000 in that time, according to the police report.
Cortez is also accused of using the academy’s funds to pay for personal expenses. Police in the report said they found an Amazon account linked to one of the company’s cards that had almost 980 purchases with no legitimate business purpose, totaling over $16,000, the vast majority of which were shipped directly to Cortez’s home in Geneva, officials said.
Cortez also spent roughly $3,500 on Doordash and over $400 on UberEats using the academy’s funds, police said in the report.
Elise Flagg Academy of Dance accounts were also used to pay thousands for Cortez’s Verizon bills and trips for her daughter, according to the report.
Flagg told investigators that she did not authorize these payments and that Cortez’s position did not include these benefits, the report said.
In total, police said the investigation indicates that Cortez received roughly $259,000 from the business in funds and personal purchases between June 2022 and March 2024. When subtracted from the amount Cortez should have received from the business, it is alleged that Cortez stole roughly $161,000 from the business in that timeframe.
However, investigators learned that Cortez may have been using her own funds to pay for business-related expenses like storage, utility and competition fees, according to the report.
A detective did find roughly $14,400 that Cortez spent from her personal bank accounts on what could be business-related expenses, the police report said.
Cortez would also sometimes deposit checks from her own accounts into the academy’s accounts, but the report said that these totaled less than $1,000 across all accounts.
If all of those transactions were legitimately for the business, then Cortez allegedly stole closer to $146,000, the detective said in the report.
Although the Elise Flagg Academy of Dance allegedly lost a great deal of money, it will survive, according to Elizabeth Brubaker. Her son is a student at the academy, and because of her background in business and finance, she was asked by the academy to look into its finances after Cortez was fired, the police report said.
Brubaker was the one who reported the alleged theft alongside Flagg, according to the police report.
Sitting at a coffee shop in downtown Geneva recently, Brubaker said there are still some financial issues, but the studio has gotten through the hardest part. While Brubaker is not an official employee of the dance studio and is not being paid, she is helping Flagg get the business back on track, she said.
“The first few months with the cash flow was tough, but we got through. We got caught up with paying all of our teachers,” Brubaker said. “I do feel like we’re on good financial footing.”
Groups of parents whose children are enrolled in the studio have also stepped up to help, redecorating and refreshing the studio with fresh coats of paint and photos of Flagg from her career as a professional dancer, she said.
The situation has also made Flagg stronger, according to Brubaker. She said it has empowered the dance instructor to look at the whole of her business, including the financial side she previously left to others.
And she doesn’t want people to look down on Flagg because of what happened.
In a text message, Brubaker said that she hopes Flagg is seen “not as an older woman who didn’t know what she was doing,” but as a “phenomenal woman with an impressive career with a commitment to training future ballet dancers.”
According to the business’ website, Flagg was selected at 12 years old to attend The School of American Ballet in New York City with a Ford Foundation Scholarship by George Balanchine, known as the father of American ballet.
Flagg studied under Balanchine and eventually joined the New York City Ballet, where she rose through the ranks to dance solo and in principal roles, the website said. She then joined the Zurich Ballet in Switzerland as a principal artist.
Drawing on those experiences and others, Flagg opened her own dance academy, which has produced dancers who have gone on to be accepted to the School of American Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet, according to the website.
Brubaker’s son has seen dramatic growth in his time attending the Elise Flagg Academy of Dance, she said. At age 14, her son was recently given a two-year full-ride scholarship to a pre-professional men’s ballet program.
“What she did with him in those three years, I don’t even understand it. Like, he is amazing,” Brubaker said at the coffee shop. “She’s just an inspiration and a gift to this community.”
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
