A Brooklyn philanthropist who donated millions to a Catskills camp for sick kids is furious that his $900,000 contribution to build the camp a sewer — named after himself — seems to have been flushed away.
Retired millionaire investor Harvey Bookman said he either wants a full accounting of his cash or his money back.
“I gave them $900,000 more than two years ago — after they knew the type, size and price of the sewer — and they still have not begun construction,” Bookman fumed.
He was so angry he reported Chai Lifeline, the nonprofit that runs the camp to the state Attorney General’s Office.
Bookman said his 2012 donation for the sewer and septic system was restricted to only that project. But he said he believes the group has spent the cash elsewhere.
The organization, which is based in Midtown and focuses its services on the Jewish community, runs Camp Simcha each summer to provide a respite for children with cancer and other ailments.
The group took in $22.8 million in contributions in 2013 and spent $20.4 million, according to its latest tax filings.
Bookman, who sold his Teckchek testing service to Oracle founder Larry Ellison in 1998, said he began contributing to Chai Lifeline a dozen years ago.
He said he became the organization’s biggest donor and stepped forward to bail it out with more than $1 million in 2009 when it was going broke.
Bookman said Camp Simcha was desperately in need of new plumbing and he agreed to fund the new system. He said he wanted his money to go only to the project and with one provision, that he get naming rights for the work. To be cheeky, he wanted it to be an eponymous sewer.
The charity’s development director wrote in October 2012 that Bookman “wants any additional funds over the $1 million that he donated this year or may donate going forward to be set aside for building a new sewer system in Camp Simcha,” according to e-mail obtained by The Post.
Bookman said when he repeatedly asked the charity’s directors in 2013 what happened to the cash and where the project stood, he couldn’t get straight answers.
He said the organization also rebuffed his offer of a multimillion-dollar contribution in exchange for naming the whole group after him.
Fed up, Bookman said he contacted the Attorney General’s Office in November 2013.
Stu Loeser, a representative of Chai Lifeline, said the sewer project has been in the planning stages since the spring of 2013 and must go through a state review process. Construction is slated to start in March, he said.
Loeser disputed Bookman’s claim that the $900,000 gift was restricted to the septic system, but said the nonprofit still has the money. He said it had spent $195,202 so far on the project, including paying a contractor deposit and $50,505 for the time staffers spent on it.