Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Employee charged with theft of more than $300,000 from NJ CP organization

From The Star-Ledger in NJ:


MAPLEWOOD, N. J. -- Authorities have charged a former employee of a North Jersey organization that provides services to people with cerebral palsy with stealing more than $300,000 in donation checks over a three-year period.

Shaakerah Kelly, 35, of Bloomfield, was arraigned today in Superior Court in Newark, charged with depositing $320,000 in donation checks to Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey into her own bank account, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow.

Investigators said Kelly, who worked in the nonprofit organization's accounts payable department, also ran up a $3,700 bill on a corporate card for personal luxury items. The group was located in Maplewood, but has since moved to Livingston.

Kelly is charged with second-degree theft by deception, third-degree fradulent use of credit card and forgery, and second-degree financial facilitation of criminal activity.

Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin set her bail at $75,000.

The alleged theft took place from January 2005 through January 2008, Loriquet said, when she was ultimately fired for different circumstances, Loriquet said. A subsequent internal audit discovered the alleged theft in June 2008, and Kelly was arrested in her home last March.

The half-century-old Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey delivers services to infants, children, adults and their families, according to its website.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s office economic crimes unit and the Maplewood police handled the investigation.