July 2, 2012; Source: LegalNewsline.com

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced that his office has filed a civil suit against Kelli Conlin, the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York because she allegedly used $250,000 in donor money for personal expenses.

According to this article, Conlin, who headed the agency between 1992 and early 2011, and whose ending compensation was close to $380,000, used the money “for personal travel, the salary of her children’s nanny, dining expenses, shopping sprees at Barneys New York and Bergdorf Goodman, the rental of a five bedroom Hamptons vacation home and thousands of dollars worth of take-out meals.” Part of the total was $44,000 to transport Conlin’s children from their Brooklyn home to their Upper West Side Manhattan school. Really living the high life New York style.

Apparently Conlin described the purchases to the NARAL board as “business related” and allegedly falsified expense reports, and kept the scheme under wraps by exerting “strict control over outside consultants who kept the books and intimidating staff members for the organization who questioned her expense habits.”

Conlin pled guilty to a felony in 2011 and was ordered to pay $75,000 in restitution but Schneiderman’s office does not want to leave it at that. It wants more in damages and restitution and will try to enjoin her from ever serving again as a director or operator of a not-for-profit organization registered or incorporated in the state of New York.—Ruth McCambridge