The former president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York and the National Institute for Reproductive Health pleaded guilty in Manhattan today to lying on her expense accounts — and agreed to pay the pro-choice non-profits back for $75,000 in personal luxuries she falsely claimed as work-related spending.
Kelli Conlin, who helmed the organization for 18 years, admitted to one count of felony falsifying business expenses.
Prosecutors say she spent at least $75,000 on clothes, meals, car service, child care — along with $13,000 toward a July, 2009 Hamptons summer rental — but claimed the expenditures were work-related.
Conlin received a non-jail sentence, and will not be incarcerated unless she fails to pay the $75,000 back within a month, in which case she faces anywhere from 1 and 1/3 to four years prison, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Larry Stephens told her.
Her plea covers expense account falsifications dating from 2007 to 2010; she concealed her conduct by telling staff that expenditures were authorized by the organizations’ boards of directors, prosecutors said.
Both sides agreed to the $75,000 reimbursement, but prosecutors said that due to the nature and duration of her conduct, the exact loss to the non-profits was impossible to quantify.
Defense lawyer Robert Anello issued a statement on Conlin’s behalf in which he said she took credit for “remarkable achievements she and NARAL made for women of this state and the nation” and called the felony charge an “expense reimbursement matter.”
“Kelli Conlin is glad to resolve this expense reimbursement matter. She remains a devoted supporter of reproductive health and rights. She is proud of the organization she has built for the past 20 years and of the remarkable achievements that she and NARAL made for women of this state and the nation,” the statement read.
“She wishes NARAL continued success,” the statement read.
“Kelli Conlin was a leader in the pro-choice movement and a powerful advocate for women,” said Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance. “But she treated the organizations’ funds as her own, betraying the trust of the donors she solicited.”