In the wake of yesterday’s bust on embezzlement charges of former North Flatbush Avenue Business improvement District (BID) Executive Director Sharon Davidson, KCP has learned that the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has taken over the administration of the troubled BID – a first for the Chamber.
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, together with the City’s Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters, yesterday announced the indictment of Davidson for allegedly siphoning off approximately $85,000 from the BID’s budget to pay for personal expenses, such as food, clothing and entertainment. She also is alleged to have collected unemployment insurance benefits when in fact she was employed by the BID and not eligible to collect.
“The 150 small business owners who joined the North Flatbush BID paid into it with the expectation that those funds would be used to promote their businesses,” said Thompson. “Instead, the defendant allegedly used the BID’s accounts as her own personal piggy bank, spending non-stop on everything from airline tickets to chocolates. She will now be held accountable. ”
Davidson, 63, who worked for the BID from June 2009 to January 2014, allegedly made hundreds of unauthorized purchases with the BID’s debit card. This includes $3,000 at Fresh Direct, $4,000 at Talbots, $600 for Beyonce concert tickets, $600 at Weight Watchers, $400 on manicures and pedicures, $13,000 paid through Paypal for items such as shoes, clothing, jewelry and makeup, and numerous purchases from restaurants.
According to sources, the BID first approached the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) about overseeing it’s roughly $150,000 annual budget collected as fees from all the businesses along Flatbush between Atlantic Avenue and Grand Army Plaza and used towards extra city services such as expanded cleaning, beautification and holiday lights.
However, the DBP, which currently oversees three large downtown Brooklyn BIDs, turned them down, and that’s when the BID approached the Chamber.
The Chamber has been running the BID since July 1. 2014.
