Former nonprofit executive faces theft charges
The former executive director of a North Shore nonprofit aimed at helping disabled children has been charged in federal court with stealing more than $800,000 from the organization and using it to pay down his credit card and on other personal expenses.
Stuart Nitzkin, 45, of Deerfield, was charged in a criminal information made public Thursday with one count of wire fraud.
Defendants charged by way of an information, as opposed to grand jury indictment, typically intend to plead guilty. Court records show an arraignment has been set for Wednesday and that Nitzkin may change his plea to guilty at that hearing.
According to the fourpage information, Nitzkin was executive director of Organization A, a nonprofit group “committed to empowering physically disabled children to participate in physical and psychological rehabilitation through sports.”
Though the charges do not name the organization, online records show it was the American Friends of the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled, the U.S. chapter of a charity founded in 1960 and described on its website as “one of the world pioneers in the field of sport rehabilitation,” specializing in the physical and psychological rehabilitation of Israeli children and youth.
The American Friends chapter of ISCD is based in Northfield. Messages left for the organization were not immediately returned.
Nitzkin’s attorney, Adam Sheppard, said Friday that the charity was “a cause to which (Nitzkin) was deeply devoted” and that he’s since worked to repay what he allegedly took.
“Grievances from his alleged mishandling of funds were addressed in a civil matter that was amicably settled,” Sheppard said.
As executive director, Nitzkin was responsible for soliciting donations and organizing and managing fundraising events, the charges alleged.
From April 2011 to September 2016, Nitzkin misappropriated at least $831,000 in funds meant for the ISCD, including directly taking cash from donors and using it to pay personal expenses, the charges alleged.
He also submitted false invoices and other requests for reimbursement, “knowing that the expenses were incurred by Nitzkin for his and others’ personal benefit,” the information stated.
In one case, Nitzkin submitted falsified invoices for catering services provided by a friend, causing the center to overpay the friend by an unspecified amount, the charges alleged.
Public tax filings show the organization had just under $11 million in donations and grants in the time period Nitzkin was allegedly stealing funds.
A statement in the charity’s 2016 tax filing said Nitzkin’s thefts, which had been going on since the charity’s inception in 2011, were discovered a month after he left his position in August 2016.
The charity hired a forensic investigator “to identify the alleged fraudulent activity and discovered that personal and family expenses of the director, along with expenses for another organization that the director was affiliated with, were paid out of the organization’s cash account,” the statement read.
At the time, the losses were estimated to be about $719,000, according to the tax filing.
The charity filed suit in February 2017 and settled with its former accounting firm later that year for $40,000, according to the tax filing statement.
Cook County Circuit Court records show the suit against Nitzkin was settled in 2018, but the amount was not publicly disclosed.