VANCOUVER -A woman charged with embezzling more than $1 million from the B.C. think-tank where she worked has, if the allegations against her are true, pocketed up to a fifth of the charity's total revenues over a seven-year period.

According to court records, Janet Mercedes Bayda, formerly a registered chartered accountant with the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy at UBC, is charged with nine counts of fraud over $5,000 between 2004 and 2011.

Donald Sorochan, counsel for Bayda's former employer, said he did not know the exact amount Bayda is accused of stealing, but estimates it is between $1 million and $1.5 million.

If those figures are correct, they represent anywhere from 15 to 22 per cent of the charity's total revenues during that period of $6.7 million.

That figure comes from the centre's Registered Charity Information Returns, which are filed each year with the Canada Revenue Agency.

Those returns also show the centre is a relatively small operation, with only four full-time employees working for it in 2012 and that it receives most of its money from the federal government and sources outside Canada, rather than directly from individual donors.

A release from the ICCLR Thursday said Bayda created false entries in the organization's accounting records to "conceal unlawfully created cheques payable to the benefit of Ms. Bayda."

“Although the amount of the fraud is clearly over $1 million, determination of the precise amount of the fraud requires access to records seized by the police but not yet available to ICCLR,” the release states.

The organization, a registered charity, operates out of space at UBC’s faculty of law but is “completely independent of UBC,” Sorochan said.

“UBC’s only involvement is that the faculty of law provides the premises. Intellectually, (UBC) provides people who work on the programs, but not to the organization or funding,” he said.

He said the ICCLR retains an auditing firm, although he declined to identify it.

Founded in 1991 through a joint initiative between UBC, Simon Fraser University, and the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, the ICCLR “delivers professional programs and publications promoting democratic principles, the rule of law and respect for human rights in criminal law,” according to the release.

Its board of directors includes appointees from UBC, SFU, the Ministry of Justice, the federal ministers of foreign affairs and public safety, the attorneys general of B.C. and Canada, and the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime.

Bayda worked for the organization for 18 years, from October 1993 to December 2011, providing bookkeeping and accounting services.

She was fired on Dec. 14, 2011 “when the fraud committed by her was initially detected by ICCLR management and was immediately confirmed by a forensic accounting review and an analysis by legal counsel.”

Asked why the alleged fraud wasn’t discovered earlier, Sorochan replied: “This is a fraud committed by a professional.

“She’s an accountant and knew how to cover her tracks.”

He said the money allegedly embezzled by Bayda came out of the ICCLR’s general operating budget, although he did not know the amount of the organization’s total budget.

According to financial information provided to the Canada Revenue Agency, the ICCLR is a registered charity with total revenue in fiscal 2012 of $644,000 and total expenditures of $729,000.

To date, the ICCLR has been able to recover $425,000 of the missing funds through working with Bayda’s lawyer, the release said.

In 2006, a Janet Bayda was featured in Metropolitan Home magazine talking about building her Vancouver dream home.

In the article, she is identified as a financial consultant who boasts of the design for the custom-built 2,400-square-foot home she shared with partner Graeme Boniface.

“We both believe that a home should be a refuge or a sanctuary,” she is quoted as saying of the open-concept glass-framed house that featured a central koi pond and reflecting pool.

“It should be a place of rest, where things are calm and serene and one can unwind.”

Bayda is due to appear in Vancouver Provincial Court on June 7.

Jbarrett@vancouversun.com

With files from Brian Morton