Office of the District Attorney
P. David Soares
Albany County Judicial Building
Albany , New York 12207
(518) 487-5460
(518) 487-5093 – fax

Former Executive Pleads Guilty to Stealing More Than $50,000 From Charity Organization

ALBANY , NY – District Attorney P. David Soares today announced that NATHANIEL DAVIS, 38, of Albany, NY pled guilty to (1) count of Grand Larceny in the Second degree, a Class “C” Felony, in front of the Honorable Dan Lamont. Under the terms of the plea bargain, DAVID faces between 2 1/3 to 7 and 3 to 9 years in prison when sentenced in May.

NATHANIEL DAVIS admitted today that he stole more than $50,000 from the W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center (WHBEEC), a not-for profit organization, and fiduciary of the Arbor Hill Environmental Justice Corp., a volunteer organization (AHEJ) . Beginning in 2006, DAVIS, the former executive director of WHBEEC, stole more than $50,000 from the operating accounts of the WHBEEC and AHEJ by cashing checks made payable to him, and writing on the memo lines that the checks were for back pay, petty cash, or network reimbursement. Since 2005, DAVIS also stole more than $3,000 by making unauthorized credit card purchases. DAVIS made purchases at EB Games, FYE, paid his cable bill, car insurance, and personal cell phone bill.  DAVIS also paid for a weekend getaway with his wife to Niagara Falls using the not-for-profit’s credit card.

“Unfortunately, cases like this are becoming far too common in this office. In the past year alone, we have prosecuted cases ranging from $1,000,000 stolen from the New York State Nurses Association, to more than $100,000 embezzled from the at Rensselaerville Library, as well as several thousand dollars taken from the New York State Training Council. I would like to encourage all companies to keep careful watch over their finances, and more importantly the personnel in charge of the finances. In most of these instances, a third party audit would have eliminated the ability for these criminals to take advantage of the trust bestowed in them by these agencies,’ commented DA Soares.

Assistant District Attorney Sean Childs from the Financial Crimes Bureau handled the prosecution of this case.