AG blasts Oprah’s pal
Board members at two Brooklyn charities — including a former makeup artist for Oprah Winfrey— kicked homeless and lowincome families out of two brownstones in order to sell the buildings for a bundle, authorities charged Wednesday.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a lawsuit that charges five trustees of Brooklyn Child and Family Services and Project Teen Aid HDFC with misconduct — including Reggie Wells, who worked for years as a makeup man for-Winfrey.
The suit claims the groups callously kicked their clients out of the two Bedford Stuyvesant homes in mid2013, and then put the properties on the market for $ 5.7 million.
By the time the homes on Halsey and Hancock streets were vacated, they were run down after years of mismanagement, the Brooklyn Supreme Court filing says.
The two groups have raked in at least $ 26 million in federal funding alone over the years, on top of city funding from the Department of Homeless Services.
“BCFS and Project Teen are now in immediate jeopardy as they are run by rogue officers and directors who have engaged in a pattern of selfdealing and wasteful and illegal actions,” the lawsuit says.
It seeks to disband the board, hold its members accountable for mismanagement and put the nonprofits into receivership.
In addition to Wells, the suit names Thomas McKinney, Amuel Renard Hilliard, Vice Chairperson Vivian Munsey Thomasson and financial manager Gene Baynes, a California resident who is cited for allegedly shifting at least $ 57,000 from BCFS into a personal bank account.
“There is simply no excuse for a charitable board using their organizations’ valuable assets for their own personal gain,” said Schneiderman.
But Baynes, who was brought on as financial manager of BCFS in May 2014, firmly denied the allegations and accused the AG’s Office of engaging in lies and slander.
“Every single dime since I have been there I can account for, and it will be accounted for properly. This is just a blatant lie,” he told The Post by phone.
Baynes said the only money he put in his personal account came from his salary.
“I have nothing — nothing — to hide. I’m very proud of what I do,” he said.