A former San Francisco public official -- already facing public corruption charges from earlier this year -- has been hit with 62 new felony counts of allegedly embezzling more than $627,000 from a city workers compensation fund he was supposed to watch over, authorities said Thursday.
Stanley Ellicott, 38, of Oakland, was charged in January with misappropriating funds from the city’s Community Challenge program. Ellicott did not work for that program, but allegedly assisted in a grant fraud scheme while he worked at the city’s Human Resources Department.
In the new case, Ellicott faces grand theft and misappropriation charges over the four-year period he served as assistant director of technology in the human resources workers compensation division. He also faces 10 counts of insurance fraud and 50 counts of money laundering, with losses totaling $627,118.86 from the city. Prosecutors will seek a white-collar crime enhancement in one case, because some of the alleged money laundering occurred when Ellicott was already on bail in the earlier case.
Until January, Ellicott was entrusted with overseeing “financial integrity” at the workers compensation division of the city, according to the affidavit in support of the charges.
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Prosecutors say Ellicott enlisted a friend to register a business and open a bank account in Illinois under the name “IAG Services”, short for “Independent Auditors Group.”
Prosecutors say the “fake business” then fraudulently began to bill the city for auditing 600 workers compensation claims. Prosecutors say no such audits occurred.
The money for those fake audits, prosecutors say, ended up being deposited into Ellicott’s personal bank accounts “in a pattern to appear like they were payroll payments.” Prosecutors also alleged that Ellicott had told subordinates to process IAG payments he’d authorized.
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It was back in January, when Ellicott was first charged with misappropriating public funding as well as aiding and abetting Lanita Henriquez, a former official with the community challenge grant program is facing charges, along with a former city staffer, Dwayne Jones.
Prosecutors said at the time that Ellicott would resell electronics he’d purchased with grant money on EBay, then sending some of the proceeds back to Henriquez.
Soon after the latest allegations became public, city officials announced they’d instituted “new controls … to prevent fraud and abuse.”
They also said Ellicott “exploited the system” thanks to his “high-level access” to the workers compensation claims data.
"I am disgusted and angered by the actions taken by Mr. Ellicott," said San Francisco Human Resources director Carol Isen, in a statement. "He took advantage of his colleagues and the public to benefit himself. There is no excuse or place for this type of behavior in City government and anyone who participates in this type of misconduct should be held accountable — morally and in a court of law. DHR, with the support of the City Attorney and Controller, continues to explore and implement all corrective options available to us to ensure that this does not happen again."
