Upper East Side PTA treasurer who stole $185K from kids’ fund sentenced to up to 5 years

A former Upper East Side PTA treasurer who embezzled $185,000 from a children’s school fund to splurge on lavish trips to the Caribbean was sentenced to 2½ to 5 years in prison for his crimes on Tuesday.

Marc Haynes, 37, who pleaded guilty to the illegal credit card transactions in January, re-pleaded to a lesser offense of third-degree larceny in Manhattan Supreme Court in exchange for paying $83,000 in restitution.

He still owes $102,000 to PS 267 PTA tied to 17 unauthorized payments he made from the PTA’s bank account to his own between October 2020 and July 2021, with the transfers ranging from $2,389 to $32,000.

Haynes, whose child attends PS 267, got caught when a fellow treasurer of the PTA’s account noticed a $9,000 transaction without an invoice. According to the DA’s office, he lied and told them it paid for “an urgent furniture purchase” for another member.

When the treasurers and other PTA members pushed back and asked for evidence, Haynes announced his sudden resignation, and they reported him to authorities.

In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg blasted Haynes for using stolen money from his own kid’s school “to bankroll luxury vacations, shopping sprees and even to pay court-ordered restitution from a prior conviction.”

Haynes used more than $23,000 of the funds to pay off restitution in the last case in which he was convicted of grand larceny in 2016. In that matter, Haynes received five years probation and was ordered to pay $51,247 in restitution to his former publisher employer.

Prosecutors detailed in court papers how he used some of the stolen money intended for field trips and enrichment programs to buy himself a designer wardrobe from Fendi and decorate his apartment with high-end furniture from Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn.

“Marc Haynes stole thousands of dollars from the PTA account of a local public school, money that should have been used to expand educational opportunities for the children of P.S. 267, and used it instead for personal enrichment,” NYC School District Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman said.

Haynes’ lawyer Adam Kaufmann did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.