ALBANY — A Brooklyn preschool with just 110 children collected $800,000 in undeserved expenses from the government for rent, credit-card bills and other costs, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Friday.
The for-profit Milestone School for Child Development, which closed in June, recouped credit-card charges without documentation and received money for entertainment and gifts that should never have been paid, the comptroller said.
He is trying to claw back the money from the downtown Brooklyn school, which had served special-education students.
Thomas DiNapoliReutersDiNapoli said the school received $196,160 more in rent than it deserved; inappropriately billed for $149,815 in fringe benefits, and was paid for $31,926 in credit card charges without providing proper invoices.
Milestone also obtained nearly $106,000 to cover three employees’ salaries that were supposed to be partially paid through other programs, according to auditors.
The school’s lawyer, Frederick Berman, disputed the findings by saying the comptroller misinterpreted the state law covering the reimbursements.
He also questioned DiNapoli’s authority to review the school’s books, even though the expenses were paid with city and state funds.



