Convict Foster Care Agency Director In Embezzlement Scam

The fiscal director of a foster care provider for the Administration for Children's Services was found guilty of mail fraud Aug. 12 and faces up to 30 years in prison for her part in an embezzlement scheme that funneled hundreds of thousands in dollars away from needy children into the pockets of ACS officials.

Stay Thompson is the last of four major players in the scheme to be found guilty, although the jury could not reach a verdict on an embezzlement conspiracy charge. Her co-worker Philbert Gorrick was sentenced to 33 months in prison in July; Nigel Osarenkhoe and Lethem Duncan, who worked for ACS, have also pleaded guilty to their part in the scheme.

Split $145,000

Working at Concord Family Services, a non-profit foster agency that ACS paid to provide foster services to city children, Ms. Thompson received more than $145,000 in false adoption subsidy payments from Mr. Osarenkhoe, who was Supervisor of Adoptions at the agency.

Ms. Thompson then shared the money with Mr. Duncan, who had introduced her to Mr. Osarenkhoe, and Mr. Gorrick, a computer consultant for Concord who worked with her on the schemes.

"Stay Thompson used her position to satisfy her own greed by lying to the city and enriching herself with money intended for children most in need," said the new U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, in a statement. "Yesterday's guilty verdict has exposed Thompson's deceit for what it is—unscrupulous crime for which the jury has brought her to justice." D.S.