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.