COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A central Ohio dominatrix is at the center of a New York scandal after a former clerk at a charity was accused of spending thousands of the non-profit's dollars to fly Columbus' Lady Sage to the Big Apple to spank him, NewsChannel5 partner ONN reported.

Abraham Alexander, of East Meadow, N.Y., allegedly stole $237,000 in heart disease research funds from the Cardiovascular Research Foundation by using company credit cards and by writing checks to himself from November 2003 through April 2005. He has been jailed on $10,000 bail.

The former 45-year-old accounts-payable clerk was no longer a CRF employee when he was taken into custody on Monday, according to a CRF spokeswoman.

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation bills itself as the world's largest private medical research foundation.

Some $11,000 of what Alexander stole went to pay Through the Looking Glass, an online company run by the Columbus-based dominatrix, Lady Sage, Manhattan district attorney's office spokeswoman Sherry Hunter said Thursday.

Hunter couldn't say whether Alexander paid for Lady Sage's trips to New York, but she said he paid American Airlines and Expedia for trips between New York and Ohio. She said he also paid for car rentals in Ohio.

"We don't know where the money went from the checks he wrote to himself," Hunter said of Alexander, an accounts payable executive at the nonprofit foundation.

She said the illegal checks plus other thefts totaled $237,162.40.

Alexander, 45, was arraigned in Manhattan's state Supreme Court late Tuesday on charges of second-degree grand larceny, forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument. He is due back in court Dec. 20.

His lawyer, Herschel Katz, said Thursday he had no comment on the case but would talk to his client Friday at the jail where he's being held. He said the arrest was Alexander's first.

According to her ex-husband, Lady Sage's legal name is Pam DeBord, a 43-year-old former hair dresser.

DeBord wasn't answering the door at her Dublin apartment, but her Lady Sage Web site said she charges upwards of $1,000 a day, plus expenses for her spanking services.

"Professional domination sessions are about good people having great fun," Lady Sage said on her Web site.

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation said an internal audit uncovered its former employee's activities with Lady Sage. Besides notifying authorities, the Foundation released a statement saying, "CRF is continuing with its own investigation and expects to recover any and all misappropriated funds."

The CRF spokeswoman said the Foundation expects the alleged theft to be covered by insurance.