Ex-ACS Adoptions Supervisor Guilty In $400G Ripoff

A former high-ranking official at the Administration for Children's Services pleaded guilty Jan. 20 to a Federal fraud charge involving a scheme to steal more than $400,000 in ACS funds intended for needy children.

Nigel Osarenkhoe, who was Supervisor of Adoptions at ACS from 1998 through to mid-2008, entered the guilty plea in Manhattan Federal Court. He admitted that he had used his position to authorize adoption payments to a co-conspirator, Stay Thompson, the director of a non-profit foster care agency. Mr. Osarenkhoe and Ms. Thompson shared some of the payments, with others going to Mr. Osarenkhoe's wife.

In total, Mr. Osarenkhoe stole $411,775, the Department of Investigation noted in a statement. "He is the second ACS insider in this case to stand convicted of Federal charges for stealing six-figure sums of sorely needed public funds intended to help needy children," said DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.

The other man convicted in the case was Lethem Duncan, the Deputy Director for the Payment Services Department of ACS, who admitted his part in the embezzlement in August 2008. Mr. Duncan co-operated with the DOI after it uncovered the crimes, leading to the arrest of Mr. Osarenkhoe.