Former Rockefeller Executive Found Guilty of Stealing $400,000 from the Foundation

By Ian Wilhelm

A former grants administrator for the Rockefeller Foundation was found guilty on Wednesday of stealing more than $400,000 from the grant maker by defrauding its employee matching-gift program over a seven-year period.

Cheryl McEwan, 51, who worked at the foundation since 1990 until she was fired in March, was convicted on eight criminal charges, including grand larceny and falsifying business records. She faces up to 15 years in prison and is schedule to be sentenced on February 28.

Ms. McEwan maintains she is not guilty and is expected to fight the verdict, said her lawyer, Seema Iyer.

"I'm sure she'll file for an appeal," Ms. Iyer said.

For the Rockefeller Foundation, in New York, the conviction closes a sad chapter in the venerable organization's 94-year history.

"With this verdict we believe that justice has now been done in this matter," said Peter Costiglio, a spokesman for the fund. "We cooperated fully in the investigation and prosecution of this matter, which was a betrayal of the foundation and its beneficiaries."

According to the Manhattan district attorney's office, Ms. McEwan stole $421,000 from Rockefeller from 1998 to 2005 by abusing the foundation's employee-gift program, which matches every dollar a staff member contributes to charity with $3 from the foundation.

Under the scheme, the district attorney's office said Ms. McEwan would contribute her personal money to Green Sphere, an environmental charity. The group's co-founder and executive director, Frank Melli, would cash her checks, submit the appropriate paperwork to the foundation for the matching funds, and then reimburse Ms. McEwan in the amount of her contribution plus a kickback.

In addition, the district attorney's office said Ms. McEwan, who had an $80,000 salary at the foundation, helped arrange a similar scheme in 2002 using a nonprofit group called An Urban Alternative of N.Y., which was controlled by her husband, Anthony McEwan, a musician.

None of the funds were used for charitable purposes, but instead paid for personal expenses, such as mortgage payments and to pay off credit-card bills, said the district attorney's office.

Last year, Mr. McEwan pleaded guilty to grand larceny and was sentenced to serve two to six years in jail. Mr. Melli pleaded guilty to falsifying business records and was sentenced to unsupervised probation.

During her trial, Ms. McEwan spent three days on the witness stand, often crying as she told the jury a story of alleged abuse and manipulation. She said her husband had lead the scam and coerced her into going along with it. She said he physically abused her whenever she asked about where her donations were going.

"If she questioned the husband about it, the husband would beat her," said Ms. Iyer, the defendant's lawyer. "After a point because she was constantly getting beaten and whatever, she just stopped looking" into the couple's finances.

The former Rockefeller employee always intended her contributions to support charity, the lawyer added.

This was the second trial for Ms. McEwan on the charges. A previous trial ended in a hung jury in November.

According to Mr. Costiglio of Rockefeller, the philanthropy uncovered Ms. McEwan's embezzlement in 2005 and notified state law-enforcement authorities. During the trial, current and former foundation employees testified against Ms. McEwan, and the foundation provided financial documents to support the prosecutor's case.

Mr. Costiglio said the foundation, which has assets of about $3.35-billion, expects to recover all but $100,000 of its stolen money under an insurance claim that is currently pending.

While the foundation continues to offer its employees a three-to-one matching gift, it has set up safeguards to make sure the program is not abused again in the future.

The case is known as People of the State of New York v. Cheryl McEwan and was adjudicated in the New York State Supreme Court of Manhattan.