longisland

A new arrest has been made in an alleged scam that ripped off aspiring models.

Dierdre Aquino, former vice president of the now-defunct Hicksville-based Model Talent Development Center, was arrested and charged on Thursday. In addition to bilking people out of money, Aquino is accused of helping owner James Muniz flee to Florida before he was arrested in October.

The district attorney says that four people already accused in the case are now facing even more charges after additional parents came forward claiming they had been promised modeling jobs for their children in exchange for a fee. Those jobs never came to fruition.

Authorities say the defendants, which includes Muniz, preyed on the insecurities of parents. The parents were told to pay immediately or lose the chance of a lifetime.

Aquino is currently in police custody and has not made bail. All five of the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

A new arrest has been made in an alleged scam that ripped off aspiring models.    Dierdre Aquino, former vice president of the now-defunct Hicksville-based Model Talent Development Center, was arrested

Long Island

LI | Weather

LIFORECAST

Be a little bit of a Scrooge this weekend for some holiday plans, not a wash out, but we're going to get wet. Yeah, it's gonna be gray. Tomorrow will definitely be the day for some of that fun. It'll be in the fifties so not too cold. You can do it. Yeah, we'll take it tomorrow and then on Sunday that's the wet day. So we are expecting rainfall on and off through the day on Sunday. So take advantage of your Saturday 56. It doesn't really feel like the holidays. It's pretty warm, but we will cool down for next week in 54 on Sunday. In the morning, light showers, most of the heavier rainfall on Sunday will get here for the afternoon and evening, but most of the day will be kind of wet. We've had the rain this evening, but the back edge is now approaching Long Island. So it will get out of here tonight. Lots of clouds. Tonight, we have warmer weather moving in. Even at this hour, we're seeing some forties and fifties southwest. It's pretty warm for this time of the year and those fifties will make their way towards Long Island tomorrow in the morning it's dry but there will be some low cloudiness around. We could have fog for the first half of the day. I think we'll see a few peaks of sunshine in the afternoon. It's not bad at all. Three o'clock, 53 Montauk and 54 in Hewlett. Now at night, after about 8 to 9 o'clock, the showers will return. It's going to be a light rain tomorrow night. Little bit of a break. Sunday morning, you can get out for your morning jog if you have to if you have anything planned. But after lunchtime you see that wet weather coming through the brighter colors that shows us there could be some pockets of heavier rainfall and this is up until about 89 o'clock at night. Our weather will start to dry out by Monday. Rainfall totals half an inch to an inch in many spots. This will be through Monday morning. So healthy little dose of rain rolling through. Then we've got a dry stretch coming up for you. Monday, 52 cooler, Tuesday at 46 much of next week will be cooler with sun and clouds.

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Dierdre Aquino arrested in alleged scam that ripped off aspiring models