A fired Planned Parenthood staffer has been charged with felony embezzlement in Oklahoma County District Court, according to a local media outlet. Kelly Lee Smith, 38, worked at Planned Parenthood’s first facility in the state to offer abortions, located in Warr Acres. A report published by Newsok.com said the abortion staffer was arrested October 11, 2017, after she allegedly used a Planned Parenthood credit card to buy lingerie, hotel rooms, amusement park attractions, and a cruise.
Mugshot: Planned Parenthood staffer Kelly Lee Smith
Authorities allege that between May and August of 2017, Smith fraudulently charged over $23,000 across nine states and Mexico. According to NewsOk.com, Planned Parenthood fired Smith on August 28. The paper reported that additional unauthorized credit card charges by Smith included clothing, pet supplies, beauty products, waxing services, electronics, pedicures, home decor, child care, and fast food, according to the affidavit.
Police reported Smith embezzled an additional $2,424 in cash that was supposed to be deposited into the Planned Parenthood bank account, the paper added.
Smith is not the first Planned Parenthood staffer to be accused of theft.
Planned Parenthood staffer Melissa Kwoka sentenced (image: The Buffalo News)
In July of 2013, a Planned Parenthood employee who worked as the organization’s accountant pled guilty to second-degree grand larceny after stealing over $100,000 from the organization. WIVP reported at the time, that between August 2012 and March 2013, 44-year-old Melissa Kwoka forged checks from Planned Parenthood of Western New York to herself and her husband, according to a criminal accusation by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
Planned Parenthood employee forged checks
According to the Buffalo News, Kwoka was originally sentenced to six years in jail and five years probation on the contingency that she repay $102,733 to the abortion corporation. The paper reports that, “The judge ordered her to make monthly payments for 10 years of $647.78 to Planned Parenthood to cover $77,733 of the stolen amount. The judge also ordered $208.33 monthly payments to M&T Bank, where the checks were drawn, to cover $25,000 the bank paid Planned Parenthood for failing to catch a portion of the thefts.”
However, after failing to abide by the terms and pay the stolen funds back, in June of 2015, Kwoka was sentenced to three years in prison.
Melissa Kwoka sentenced
Why this thief was hired by Planned Parenthood, which receives over half a billion dollars from the taxpayer each year, is a mystery to begin with. Live Action News previously reported that Kwoka had three previous convictions for theft offenses before her employment with the abortion business. In addition, Kwoka was accused of stealing over five hundred dollars from a friend’s bank account while on bail after her embezzlement conviction.
David Nova
In 2011, a Planned Parenthood executive in Virginia was jailed on charges he stole wine from a Roanoke county store. David Nova, vice president of Planned Parenthood Health Systems in Roanoke, was charged with three counts of petty larceny. According to Roanoke.com, which reported the story at the time, “The charges stem from bottles of wine Nova took through a self-checkout line at the Cave Spring Kroger. The incidents occurred on two separate dates in January, according to online court records.”
Nova is known for defending Planned Parenthood after Live Action undercover investigations revealed Planned Parenthood staffers helping an actor posing as a pimp obtain abortions for minor girls. (Video below)
According to a report published by Life News, Nova claimed to have reported the incident to police after the “pimp” left his facility:
On February 4, David Nova, vice president for Planned Parenthood Health Systems Inc, told the News Virginian that ‘police were notified after the man left.’
‘The employees on these edited tapes in Roanoke and Charlottesville acted professionally in their interactions with the fake patient,’ Nova said in a released statement. ‘In both cases, they promptly reported the incidents to their supervisors.’
But FOIA’d documents obtained later by Live Action indicate that this was not true.
For his crime, Nova was ordered by a judge to serve three weekends in the Roanoke County Jail. But, according to media reports, the charges were dismissed after Nova completed his jail time. Nova’s attorney called his arrest “personal” and said it has nothing to do with his job.
In 2004, Nova, then CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge received Planned Parenthood’s “Jimmy Award,” to “help advance the Vision for 2025 by rewarding bold and creative thinking.”
A newsletter published by Planned Parenthood Health Systems since the incident indicates that this did not affect his standing with Planned Parenthood. In fact, Nova’s LinkedIn page currently shows that he is employed as VP of Communications and Strategic Initiatives for Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc., although the page may not have been updated.
In 2008, a Rhode Island ABC affiliate reported that the 59-year-old CEO of a Planned Parenthood in that state had been caught shoplifting at the Warwick Mall.
Planned Parenthood staffer accused of shop lifting
Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island President and CEO Miriam Inocencio, a veteran of the organization, was caught by police after allegedly stealing an $89 Liz Claiborne blouse from the local Macy’s Department Store, the report claimed.
A 990 filed by Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island in 2010 shows that the former CEO earned nearly $100,000 in salary and compensation in 2008.
Inocencio’s LinkedIn page reveals that she served as President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island from 1997 to 2008. She previously worked at Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s International division from 1984 to 1992.
The Planned Parenthood president pleaded out in court and agreed to reimburse the store. Inocencio told the media that she later voluntary resigned from Planned Parenthood but added that she was proud of what she accomplished during her 13 years as their director.
Miriam Inocencio Planned Parenthood CEO
In 2002, Inocencio, a black Cuban-American woman, indicated that she was originally hired by the abortion business because of her ethnicity.
In a piece she penned to Non-profit Quarterly, Inocencio wrote that prior to Planned Parenthood hiring her in the mid-1990’s, the staff at the Rhode Island Planned Parenthood was overwhelmingly white.
“For many years the PPRI staff and board had, with few exceptions, remained overwhelmingly white and middle-class and almost exclusively English speaking,” she said.
Inocencio added that “pressure from external systems […] along with other motivations resulted in the board’s decision to hire a CEO of color, and this made for a relatively smooth transition to a multicultural organization.”
What those “other motivations” were was not specified but as Live Action News has well documented, Planned Parenthood’s founder Margaret Sanger made sure that Planned Parenthood was knee deep in eugenics. And, the organization’s ties to eugenics continued far beyond their founder, as Live Action News previously documented.
Today, with the help of Planned Parenthood, abortion disproportionately affects minority Black and Hispanic communities.
In contrast to Planned Parenthood staffers who are involved in theft, former Planned Parenthood whistleblowers have exposed the abortion corporation’s own trouble with numbers by accusing the tax-funded organization of Medicaid fraud. And, as Live Action News has documented, Planned Parenthood has been cited in several states for overbilling abuses and Medicaid fraud. In addition, Planned Parenthood has been cited for violating patient privacy and has been exposed for failing to report child sexual abuse.
