Ex-ACS Official Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement in $1M Agency Ripoff
By DAVID SIMS

Lethem Duncan, who for the past decade had been the Deputy Director for the Payment Services Department of the Administration for Children's Services, July 31 pleaded guilty to six counts of embezzling ACS funds intended for needy children. Mr. Duncan, along with another ACS worker and two other child-care workers, was charged with funneling over a million dollars of ACS money into their bank accounts two weeks earlier.

"I worked for ACS. I agreed with other people to embezzle money," Mr. Duncan said as part of his guilty plea.

Others charged in the same case were Nigel Osarenkhoe, the Supervisor of Adoptions in Mr. Duncan's ACS unit, Stay Thompson, the Fiscal Director at non-profit care agency Concord Family Services, and Philbert Gorrick, an independent contractor at Concord. In total more than a million dollars was embezzled.

Only the Checks Were Real

In one of the scams, Ms. Thompson posed as an adoptive parent, for which she was compensated with ACS payments authorized by Mr. Osarenkhoe; in another, Mr. Gorrick billed ACS for imaginary computer services charges which Mr. Thompson authorized. The money was later split between the embezzlers in each case.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, along with the Department of Investigation, uncovered the crimes and persuaded Mr. Duncan to cooperate with their probe. Further arrests were made after Mr. Duncan received checks for embezzled money from Mr. Gorrick and Ms. Thompson. Mr. Osarenkhoe, Mr. Gorrick and Ms. Thompson have not yet entered pleas in a case being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Stein and William Harrington.

Mr. Duncan faces a maximum sentence of 75 years in prison, as well as a possible fine of more than $250,000.