Former NYC Council aides indicted

NEW YORK, April 16 (UPI) -- Two former New York City Council staff members were charged Wednesday with embezzling $145,000 that was supposed to be used to help school children.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed an indictment charging Asquith Reid and Joycinth Anderson with money laundering and fraud, The New York Times reported. Reid formerly served as chief of staff to City Councilman Kendall Stewart of Brooklyn.

The money came from the city council's "discretionary funds," money supposedly distributed to non-profit organizations. Investigators recently reported that the office of the council speaker, Christine Quinn, used fictitious non-profit groups to hold funds so that council members could distribute them without approval from the mayor.

The indictment charges that Reid used money allocated to the Donna Reid Memorial Fund, named after his daughter, for his personal benefit. He allegedly spent some of the money on campaign expenses and wired $31,000 to relatives in Jamaica.