New York Attorney General sues pro-abortion activist over misappropriated funds

It seems that televangelists aren't the only people playing fast and loose with donations from their supporters, as this item shows. I am shocked--shocked!--to find that someone would be so heartless as to misspend money donated for so worthy and compassionate a cause as the slaughter of unborn babies. As reported by Associated Press, June 29, 2012:

ALBANY (AP) — The state attorney general’s office has accused the former leader of a prominent abortion-rights group of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of charitable money on shopping sprees, a Hamptons vacation rental, fine dining, hotels and other personal luxuries.

The accusation is included in a civil complaint filed in Manhattan on Thursday against Kelli Conlin, 54, who pleaded guilty a year ago to falsifying business records, a felony. Her criminal case closed without jail time after she repaid $75,000 in restitution to Naral Pro-Choice New York and its affiliated foundation, which she led from 1992 through 2010.

But David Nachman, enforcement section chief of the attorney general’s Charities Bureau, said Ms. Conlin’s spending actually amounted to “hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper benefits.”

The attorney general’s office is requesting that she repay all of it, with interest, and reimburse its own legal and investigative costs.

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has recused himself because his father, Irving, was the treasurer for a time of Naral Pro-Choice New York. His office appointed an outside counsel to investigate Ms. Conlin in March 2011. Naral and other abortion-rights groups were among Mr. Schneiderman’s supporters in his 2010 campaign for attorney general.

Naral Pro-Choice New York and the National Institute for Reproductive Health said Friday that they applauded the civil action and had put new financial controls in place since Ms. Conlin was terminated in January 2011. The group said that it did an internal investigation and that it had cooperated with the attorney general’s investigation.

Calls to Ms. Conlin’s attorney were not immediately returned on Friday.

For more details, see AG Sues Ex-NARAL NY Boss Kelli Conlin