Trans activist Dominique Morgan stole nearly $100,000 from a Brooklyn nonprofit’s bail fund: DA

A prominent transgender activist stole nearly $100,000 from a bail fund she managed and used the money to pay for renovations to her wardrobe and her Mercedes. Brooklyn prosecutors say.

Dominic Morgan, 43, of Atlanta, was already earning $200,000 a year as chief executive of the Brooklyn-based company. OKRA project when she stole $99,000 over about two weeks in July 2022, prosecutors allege.

Morgan announced that OKRA, which offers mutual aid and other resources to the black trans community across the country, would begin helping people, but took no steps to create an official initiative, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors said she transferred the money to her personal account, ostensibly to help needy criminal defendants, but instead spent it on a $19,000 toilet renovation in California, a car payment on a Mercedes-Benz, shopping at clothing stores, food and other personal expenses, prosecutors said. .

When OKRA asked her to provide evidence that she had used the bail money, she forged false receipts for 23 people who were allegedly arrested in Fulton County, Georgia, and Douglas County, Nebraska, prosecutors allege. However, a review showed that none of the men had been arrested in either county at the time, prosecutors said.

She left OKRA the following month. announced on her LinkedIn page: “August 2, 2022 was my last day as Executive Director of the Okra Project. The decision was peaceful.”

Morgan was indicted Tuesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court on one count of grand larceny and 23 counts of falsifying business records. She pleaded not guilty and Judge Danny Chun ordered her released without bail.

She did not answer questions outside the courtroom, and her lawyer, Jonathan Fink, declined to comment Tuesday.

She could face between five and 15 years in prison if convicted of the capital charge.

“The theft of nonprofit funds deprives communities of critical resources, undermines public trust, and defrauds donors who give in good faith,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “The defendant in this case allegedly stole bail funds intended for the pretrial release of indigent defendants and instead used the money for personal gain.”

OKRA officials did not respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.

The nonprofit’s current executive director, Gabrielle Ines Souza, mentioned the unrest in a letter on the organization’s website after she began work.

“I am no stranger to the lack of leadership, accountability and transparency that plagues this organization. Many tried to forget past mistakes, hoping to pave the way for newness without healing old wounds,” she wrote. “But in the words of George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And in recent years we have been stuck on repetition.”

Morgan is also the former executive director of Black and Pink, a national prison abolition organization that supports currently and formerly incarcerated individuals who are LGBTQ+ and/or living with HIV/AIDS.

After leaving OKRA she became a director Trans Generations Foundation at Borealis Philanthropy.

Borealis representatives did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.