Upper East Side PTA treasurer charged with stealing $185,000 from his daughter’s public elementary school to fund lavish trips to the Caribbean, Fendi and to pay theft fines from his last job.
- Former co-treasurer of PTA PS 267, Mark Haynes, 34, was charged with grand larceny in the second degree for stealing $185,000 from his child’s elementary school.
- Haynes embezzled between $2,389 and $32,000 between October 2020 and July 2021, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
- He used the money to pay for luxury hotels in St. Lucia and Bermuda, as well as shopping at Fendi, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware.
- The repeat offender even paid restitution to his previous employer, a publishing company from which he was convicted of stealing in 2016.
A New York Public School PTA treasurer has been charged with stealing $185,000 in funds and embezzling it on trips to the Caribbean, shopping at Fendi, and fines he received for stealing from his last job.
Between October 26, 2020 and July 6, 2021, Mark Haynes, 34, former co-treasurer of Parent and Teacher Association PS 267, embezzled funds from two of the organization’s checking accounts into his JP Morgan account. The deals ranged from $2,389 to $32,000, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
The money stolen from the East 63rd Street School went towards luxury hotel stays in Bermuda and St. Lucia, as well as shopping at Fendi, Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn.
He also used PTA money to pay $23,838 out of $51,247 in damages owed to his former employer, the publishing company he was convicted of stealing in 2016.
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Mark Haynes, 34 (center), is pictured at his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court on March 23.
Between October 26, 2020 and July 6, 2021, Haynes (pictured), a former co-treasurer of Parent and Teacher Association PS 267, made 17 embezzlements from two of the organization’s checking accounts to his JP Morgan account, ranging from $2,389 to $32,000.
Haynes’ child attends PS 267, the school that Haynes appropriated (pictured)
When one of the new PTA co-treasurers asked Haynes about a suspicious $9,081 payment last October that had no supporting documents, he claimed the transaction was to reimburse another PTA member’s credit card for an “urgent purchase of furniture.”
After this co-treasurer emailed Haynes, who was then co-president of the PTA, and other members asking for evidence, Haynes responded to that email with a letter of resignation.
After other suspicious credit card transfers were discovered, the co-treasurer contacted the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and other law enforcement agencies.
“I thank the diligent PTA members who uncovered these thefts and reported them to my office,” newly minted District Attorney Alvin Bragg said of the indictment.
“As we see all too often, no organization, even one dedicated to the children of our city, is immune from theft and fraud.”