SF city employee charged with felonies for allegedly misusing grant funds
SAN FRANCISCO – A city employee with the San Francisco Department of Human Resources was charged with multiple felony counts over suspected misuse of grant funds connected to an alleged City Hall bribery scheme, prosecutors said.
Stanley Ellicott, 38, a manager in the department, is accused of misappropriating funds awarded through the city's Community Challenge Grant Program, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office said in a statement Thursday.
A criminal complaint filed by the District Attorney's Office said that from May 2017 to July 2021, Ellicott helped Lanita Henriquez, director of San Francisco's Community Challenge Grant Program, in the misappropriation of public money for her and others' use.
Prosecutors said Ellicott had six violations, including aiding and abetting Henriquez's financial conflict of interest in six Community Challenge Grant contracts that she entered in to on behalf of the city with entities belonging to and controlled by former city employee Rudolph Dwayne Jones.
The District Attorney's Office alleged that Ellicott committed felony receipt of stolen property, but there is currently no evidence that his alleged criminal activity was related to his work in the Department of Human Resources.
An affidavit filed with the court supporting Ellicott's arrest describes a scheme in which Henriquez entered into contracts on behalf of the city with entities controlled by Jones totaling more than $1.4 million. During the same period, and while the city employed Ellicott, Jones's RDJ Enterprises paid Ellicott more than $269,000.
He then made payments of more than $65,000 back to Henriquez using Venmo and PayPal, according to prosecutors.
An affidavit filed last year in support of the arrests of Henriquez and Jones also alleged that leading up to and during the period in which Jones's companies had contracts with the city through the Community Challenge Grant program, Henriquez received nine checks totaling $32,942 from entities controlled by Jones. Family members and close associates of Henriquez also received 48 checks from entities controlled by Jones totaling $156,821 during the same period, prosecutors said.
The affidavit also alleges that emails and documents located in Jones's office pursuant to a search warrant in 2023 showed that Ellicott did website, technical, and graphic design work for the grants, but Jones and Henriquez concealed his involvement and billed his work as having been done by an RDJ employee.
The grant work was reportedly unrelated to Ellicott's job in the Department of Human Resources and he did not have authorization to perform outside work.
In February, March, and April of 2019, he sold thousands of dollars of "BRAND NEW" and "SEALED IN THE BOX" cameras and electronic equipment on eBay that had been purchased using Community Challenge Grant money, prosecutors said.
According to the affidavit, Jones's company submitted invoices to Henriquez in February and March of 2019 -- which she approved and recommended for payment—related to a "resiliency" grant. The purpose of the grant was to purchase earthquake supplies for neighborhood groups and provide them with education and outreach.
The affidavit also alleges that Jones gave false invoices for over $100,000 worth of emergency equipment for neighborhood groups that he did not purchase. Henriquez recommended the city pay Jones for these fake purchases, prosecutors said.
Henriquez and Jones were each charged with six counts of bribery and 23 counts of financial conflict of interest in a government contract last August.
Those with relevant information about the case are asked to call the Public Integrity Task Force tip line at (628) 652-4444 and can remain anonymous.