Kansas City, Mo. ? A Kansas City-based agency founded by President Dwight Eisenhower hit the news Friday, but not for its international operations promoting understanding, peace and friendship.

Its former finance director stood in front of a federal judge and admitted his own darker agenda: greed.

The Leawood, Kan., man pleaded guilty to stealing from People to People International in a scheme prosecutors said went on for more than two years and netted more than $148,000.

David Schlotzhauer’s plea in Kansas City almost collapsed at one point when he contended that his taking an $18,125 company check had been approved by Mary Jean Eisenhower – Ike’s granddaughter and the agency’s president and CEO.

There was an oral agreement, Schlotzhauer said, that “she would lend me money to help get me out of a pinch.”

A prosecutor said that was a lie, and the defense attorney quickly huddled with his client. In about a minute, Schlotzhauer, 51, renounced the statement and resumed his guilty plea.

Notified later of the statement, Eisenhower noted that People to People started the year she was born and that she and it turn 50 together this year.

“I cherished my grandfather and his memory, and I cherish this program,” she said. “There is no way I would agree to something like that (check).”

In fact, she said, it was that very check that resulted in Schlotzhauer being fired in 2003 from his more than $79,000-a-year job as vice president of finance. She fired him within days of discovering the check, she said, and called in an auditor who then found the other thefts.

From May 2001 to September 2003, prosecutors contend, Schlotzhauer stole from the group’s checking account and charged items for himself on its credit card. Schlotzhauer contends he took about $70,000, not the more than $148,000 alleged by prosecutors.

The matter is to be resolved later at a sentencing hearing. Prosecutors will seek a sentence of 18 to 24 months. The defense will ask for much less.

As for the discrepancy in the amount stolen, Eisenhower said, “It’s like being a little bit pregnant. Either you did it or you didn’t.”

None of the money came from program operation funds, she said. The group takes in about $3.4 million a year in donations and fees. It operates programs in 135 countries that range from youth camps and student exchanges to efforts against land mines.