Former Blue City Staffer Admits Embezzling Hundreds Of Thousands In Public Funds

Former San Francisco city official Stanley Ellicott pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling more than $600,000 in city funds and participating in another former city employee’s fraud scheme, according to multiple local outlets.

The former assistant director of finance and technology for the workers’ compensation division of the city’s Department of Human Resources (DHR) was first hit with multiple felony charges in January for his alleged role in a scheme to misappropriate grant funds awarded through the city’s Community Challenge Grant Program. By March, Ellicott was arrested on 62 felony charges involving the theft of more than $627,000 directly from his own department.

In the first round of charges from January, officials accused Ellicott of aiding and abetting former Community Challenge Grant director Lanita Henriquez in the misappropriation of public money for her own use and the use of others. Henriquez allegedly stole money from the city through contracts steered to her ex-boyfriend, former Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mayoral staffer Rudolph Dwayne Jones.

Notably, Newsom’s former chief of staff Dana Williamson was arrested on Nov. 12 and charged with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, among other crimes.

During that period, Jones allegedly paid kickbacks to Ellicott, who then passed them to Henriquez. While the initial complaint accused Ellicott of felony receipt of stolen property, there had been no evidence of his alleged criminal activity at the time related to his work in San Francisco’s DHR.

Officials said Henriquez allegedly entered into contracts on behalf of the City and County of San Francisco with entities controlled by Jones totaling more than $1.4 million. During that time, Ellicott was employed by the city, and Jones’ company, RDJ Enterprises, allegedly paid him a total of $269,876.24. The payments were then allegedly passed back to Henriquez through Venmo and PayPal, totaling $65,650.26.

Henriquez and Jones were both hit with a 59-count complaint filed in August 2023. They were charged with misappropriation of government funds, multiple counts of bribery and numerous counts of financial conflicts of interest, according to officials.

According to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Ellicott’s second set of charges in March accused him of stealing $627,118.86 over a four-and-a-half-year period from May 2019 to January 2024. The complaint alleges one count of grand theft, one count of misappropriation of public money, ten counts of insurance fraud and 50 counts of money laundering.

At the time of the alleged crimes, Ellicott was responsible for overseeing the financial integrity of the Workers’ Compensation Division as an assistant director. He allegedly enlisted a friend to register a fake business in Illinois called “IAG Services” and open a bank account for the company, giving Ellicott full control.

Through the fake business, Ellicott then allegedly registered it as a vendor in the workers’ compensation system and over time billed more than 600 city workers’ compensation claims for auditing services.

Following Ellicott’s plea, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the Chronicle that the former assistant director’s conviction demonstrates the office’s “ongoing commitment to rooting out public corruption.”

“San Franciscans have a right to expect that city employees will act with integrity while performing their public duties and not seek to enrich themselves at the public’s expense,” Jenkins told the outlet. “This conviction comes almost two years after charges were initially filed and demonstrates my office’s ongoing commitment to rooting out public corruption.”

With Ellicott pleading guilty, he faces three years in state prison and is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 2, 2026, for sentencing, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.