Try not to laugh: Before Shirley Huntley was sentenced to jail in May for stealing $87,000 from a children’s charity she controlled, a friend wrote the judge for leniency, calling her his mentor and an “outstanding citizen.”
The punch line? This character witness has now been arrested for stealing $88,000 from his children’s charity.
Van Holmes, head of the Queens-based Young Leaders Institute, clearly learned his lessons from Huntley — he’s facing four felony charges for turning the “nonprofit” shell group into a personal ATM.
Then again, converting nonprofits into cash mills is a pastime of plenty other city and state legislators. Huntley is about to go to prison for it, where she’ll join her former colleague Efrain Gonzalez and ex-Councilmen Larry Seabrook and Miguel Martinez, who were all convicted in similar plots.
Most of the money Holmes allegedly stole came from taxpayer-funded “member items” Huntley steered toward his group. At least four other councilmen also sent him heaps of cash: Ruben Wills (Huntley’s former chief of staff) sent Holmes $17,000. Leroy Comrie added $7,000. Mark Weprin put in $10,000. And state Sen. James Sanders (Huntley’s successor) gave $3,500 when he was on the council.
These pols say they had no thought Holmes was a crook. But at best that means they had no inkling where they were sending your taxpayer dollars. Which ought to remind us that one good way to take on political corruption is to end the cozy political funding arrangements for nonprofits.