Salvation Army staffer admits embezzlement: Stole money intended for rent for AIDS patients

Over seven years, Leroy Brown, 60, a financial manager at the Salvation Army’s Newark, New Jersey, office, secretly stole money that was supposed to be used to subsidize rent for AIDS patients and the poor.

At a hearing July 26 in federal court, Brown admitted to cutting 585 checks worth more than $385,000, then passing them to a friend who cashed them and split the proceeds with him. Standing before U.S. District Judge Joseph Greenaway, Brown pleaded guilty to conspiring to embezzle and to tax evasion. He faces between 30 and 37 months in prison.

The case stunned prosecutors and officials at the Salvation Army, where Brown had worked since at least 1994. “I’m not used to this kind of trauma,” the Salvation Army’s Colonel Charles Kelly said as he left the hearing. –Religion News Service