Metro

Huntley ‘$hare’ eyed

Patricia Savage

Patricia Savage (Dennis Clark)

HEAT’S ON: State Sen. Shirley Huntley surrenders to Nassau County authorities in the corruption probe. (
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Investigators are probing whether State Sen. Shirley Huntley received kickbacks from two aides charged with stealing $30,000 in taxpayer funds from her bogus nonprofit, The Post has learned.

Huntley — who pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of conspiracy and falsifying records — earmarked the funds for her charity, Parent Workshop, and may have gotten a cut of the money, according to state officials briefed on the investigation.

But investigators are still facing many unanswered questions — mostly because the Queens Democrat and her alleged accomplices attempted to cover their tracks with false documents, a state official said.

“There’s no clear paper trail,” the state official said. “So many things could have happened with the money.”

Huntley turned herself in after a grand-jury probe began closing in on her charity — and as one of her former accomplices flipped on her, said state officials and the indictment handed down Monday.

Roger Scotland, the former $125,000-a-year president of the Southern Queens Park Association, is now cooperating with prosecutors, the state source said.

He was charged in December with creating fake records that purported to show that the Parent Workshop’s taxpayer money was going toward seminars — which prosecutors say never actually occurred.

Reached at his Jamaica home, Scotland said he was ordered not to discuss the case. Huntley’s attorney didn’t return calls for comment.

The indictment against Huntley, 74, describes a witness who testified before a grand jury in Nassau County Criminal Court that the senator drafted a fake letter for the “new president and CEO” of the Southern Queens Park Association.

The letter was an attempt to dupe investigators, the indictment said, because it said the association hosted Parent Workshop events.

Scotland was left out of the superceding indictment filed Monday against Huntley and her co-defendants: Patricia Savage, the president of Parent Workshop, and Lynn Smith, Huntley’s niece. Both are charged with grand larceny.

Also indicted was David Gantt, a “consultant” who allegedly doctored paperwork to hide the alleged embezzlement.

The original charges against Scotland are still pending. The offices of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli are running the investigation.

Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese and Melissa Klein