Nzeribe McKenzie, 33, of Cambridge, was ordered held in lieu of $7,500 bail today at his arraignment on charges he embezzled $750,000 from the Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, which serves some of the city's poorest residents, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

"At a time when the Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center was struggling to pay its electrical bills, the defendant was driving a luxury car home to a penthouse apartment," DA Dan Conley said in a statement "This scheme didn?t just victimize a non-profit agency. It victimized the poor, the sick, and the elderly who depend upon it for services."

Prosecutors charged that McKenzie, who first began working for the health center as a contractor in 2001, used his access to the health center's payroll between 2003 and 2008 to deposit hundreds of thousands into bank accounts he controlled - and that he altered or destroyed check records to try to hide what he'd done.

According to the DA's office, McKenzie used the money to buy two Lamborghinis and a penthouse condo overlooking the Charles River in Cambridge. He also allegedly bought or leased Cadillacs, BMWs, Lincolns, and Mercedes vehicles, prosecutors say, adding the cars have all been sold or repossessed and the penthouse mortgage is in arrears and facing foreclosure.

"For us, the next step is to explore all avenues to recoup the money that was unscrupulously and with malice taken away from a community that has nothing and could least afford it," the health center's current CEO, Dr. Chidi Achebe, said in a statement.