By Chris Rotolo
RED BANK – A recent audit of the Red Bank Education Foundation’s financial records has generated criminal allegations against its former treasurer and one-term borough council member.
According to information released by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Lincroft resident Hazim Yassin was charged Monday, May 9 with third-degree theft by unlawful taking following an annual audit by the Red Bank Education Foundation and a subsequent investigation by the office’s Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Bureau.
The audit identified a series of unauthorized withdrawals from the nonprofit organization’s bank account that could not be reconciled. The prosecutor’s office noted that four of the withdrawals occurred during 2020 when the foundation was inactive due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
The Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Bureau was contacted to conduct an investigation that showed Yassin to have served as the organization’s treasurer at the time of the withdrawals, and linked the 32-year-old Lincroft resident to $7,650 of diverted funds.
“Reference to some of (the withdrawals) were missing from the nonprofit’s treasury reports,” the prosecutor’s office media release said.
The Red Bank Education Foundation supports the Red Bank Borough Public School District with supplementary financing for initiatives related to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics curriculum, in addition to performing arts, social sciences and physical education opportunities.
Yassin won a council seat in 2018 as part of a Democratic ticket alongside current Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna and council member Kate Triggiano, but fell short in a 2021 reelection campaign in which he finished third in primary voting behind Jacqueline Sturdivant and Triggiano.
In January 2022, Yassin was evicted from his Red Bank apartment on Branch Avenue for unpaid rent that totaled upward of $32,000.
As reported in The Two River Times in September 2021, Yassin said he and his landlord were in a dispute that was being resolved in the courts. Court proceedings were rescheduled several times due to COVID-19 delays resulting in a mandatory remote settlement conference Aug. 6.
Yassin is expected to make his first appearance in Monmouth County Superior Court in June. If convicted of the charge, Yassin would face a prison term of up to five years.
This article originally appeared in the May 12-18, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
