NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The former general counsel for a Teamsters union has been indicted for defrauding it of more than $200,000 by using forged receipts for legal work and continuing legal education courses.

Kevin Clor, 40, who served as counsel for New York State Thruway Employees Local 72 from 2001 to 2011, faces two counts of grand larceny and multiple counts of possessing forged documents and falsifying business records.

Clor pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in Manhattan state court before Acting Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman.

Between January 2006 and May 2011, prosecutors say that Clor submitted about 150 forged receipts to the union. The receipts included invoices for more than $100,000 in continuing legal education courses that prosecutors say Clor never attended.

Prosecutors also have accused Clor of submitting more than $22,000 in receipts for Thomson Reuters legal materials that he didn't purchase.

"He went so far as to make up names of Thomson Reuters employees," Assistant District Attorney Jose Fanjul told Berkman on Wednesday during Clor's arraignment.

"The case against him is quite strong," Fanjul said. "Those receipts were in fact fraudulent."

Clor's defense attorney, Jeremy Saland, told Berkman that the prosecution's allegations were "filled with misinformation."

According to Saland, more than $37,000 in receipts were submitted for legitimate services Clor received at a local UPS Store in Buffalo, an assertion Saland said the store had corroborated.

But prosecutors said Clor also has engaged in a broader pattern of deception, even after he became aware of the investigation into his finances. Fanjul accused him of persuading others to write letters attesting to his good character under false pretenses, claiming he needed them to help him get a job, as part of plea negotiations with the district attorney's office.

CANCER-STRICKEN MOTHER

Clor currently works at the beleaguered law firm Steven J. Baum P.C., which is in the process of shutting down after mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac barred loan servicers from referring cases to the firm.

Saland said Clor is not employed at Baum as an attorney but could not offer more details about his work there .

Berkman ordered Clor held on $75,000 bail, despite Saland's pleas that Clor's cancer-stricken mother and autistic child would suffer the consequences of his imprisonment.

Second-degree grand larceny, a Class C felony, carries up to 15 years in prison.

A spokesman for Thomson Reuters, which owns Thomson Reuters News and Insight, did not return a call for comment.

Local 72 includes approximately 2,500 full- and part-time employees of the New York State Thruway Authority, according to the district attorney's office. A woman who answered the phone at union headquarters would only say, "No comment."

The case is the People of New York v. Kevin Clor, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 5866-11.

For Clor: Jeremy Saland of Crotty Saland.

For the prosecution: Assistant District Attorney Jose Fanjul of the New York County District Attorney's Office.

(Reporting By Joseph Ax)

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