She's sure to receive a GLTB award

$4M & 'change'

By BRUCE GOLDING

A transsexual scientist who used government grant money to fund her sex change must pay more than $4 million in civil fraud damages.

A Manhattan federal judge slapped Daniel "D.B." Karron with the maximum triple penalty -- on top of the 15-month sentence she's already served for misusing the $1.3 million-plus in taxpayer dough.

"This thing is so cock-eyed, I can't begin to figure it out," Karron complained yesterday.

Karron, 54, a male-to-female transsexual biomedical engineer, was supposed to use her Department of Commerce grant to develop computer technologies for medical uses, with potential benefits in radiation therapy, surgical planning and the manufacture of prosthetic devices.

Instead, she used some of the loot for personal expenses, including medications, psychotherapy, dental work, electrolysis, rent, track lighting for her apartment, and appliances, including blenders, vacuum cleaners and power drills.

Karron also spent the money on sex-change procedures for herself and three employees of her Midtown-based firm, Computer Aided Surgery Inc., she said yesterday.

"Trannies are very good in high tech, and that's what I did," she said. "It was a medical benefit."

Convicted of the pilfering in 2008, she served her time at the women's federal prison in West Virginia, known as "Camp Cupcake."

She said that she's a lesbian and that her love life is "kind of a touchy situation" because she fell in love with a sister inmate and they're prohibited from seeing each other while either is on supervised release.

"You can't be jellin' with a felon," she noted.

She said she plans to appeal.