New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced a $790,000 settlement against three former officials of Praxis Housing Initiatives, a local provider of HIV/AIDS housing and services. Praxis Executive director Gordon Duggins and President G. Sterling Zinsmeyer have been under investigation by multiple agencies since 2003, when they were accused of funneling agency funds into their own for-profit homeless shelters in Harlem and the Bronx. The settlement marks the end of a long saga, first detailed by City Limits in a four-part investigation. In a written statement, Spitzer blasted the pair, along with Dwight Kinsey, Praxis’ board member and corporate counsel, who allegedly knew of the malfeasance but failed to intervene. “Officers and directors of not-for-profits” wrote Spitzer, “cannot be allowed to put their own financial interests above the interests of the charity and beneficiaries to whom they owe the highest degree of loyalty and care.” (C. Feldman) [11/21/05]