A audit of what was once one of Hartford’s premier charitable organization shows that millions of dollars in government grants were distributed with no understanding of how the money would be spent and often on instructions from influential Hartford state Sen. Douglas McCrory.
The audit was ordered by the state after the Blue Hills Civic Association belatedly reported last year that $300,000 in state money had apparently vanished in 2024 through a fraudulent bank transfer. And it confirms suspicions that there has been little control over and accounting for the millions in grant dollars that have passed through the organization in recent years.
“The forensic audit of BHCA reveals pervasive governance failures, systemic internal control weaknesses, and patterns of conduct that strongly suggest potential fraud and misappropriation of public funds by BHCA and related parties,” wrote the state’s auditors, CliftonAllenLarson of West Hartford.
To the extent that they were able, because of incomplete or non-existent records, the auditors examined McCrory’s outsized role in deciding to which organizations it would disburse the $5.5 million in state funds it received annually during the audit period and in what amounts. McCrory‘s role in deciding who benefitted from millions in charitable giving was described by the Courant last summer.
“Once the subrecipients for both FY’24 and FY’25 Legislative Grants were communicated to BHCA by Senator McCrory, it does not appear that BHCA conducted any due diligence into the selected organizations,” the auditors reported.
Remarkably, the BHCA board members and employees responsible for distributing state money to charities — at least those willing to be interviewed — told the auditors they were not involved in the decisions or aware of how the decisions were made.
Federal grand jury opens probe of how millions in grants were distributed to Hartford nonprofits
“The BHCA board members interviewed stated they were not involved in the grant awarding process, and the former BHCA employees interviewed stated that they either had no visibility into the grant awarding process or did not believe any formal process was in place to determine which entities were chosen to receive funding, the audit report said.
One of the subrecipients that benefitted repeatedly from BHCA money is a collection of ostensibly nonprofit entities operated under the name SHEBA by Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin, a close personal friend and one-time housemate of McCrory who had only recently arrived as a player in the North Hartford charitable scene.
The auditors report finding an email from former BHCA Executive Director Vicki Gallon-Clark asking for instructions on how to back-date a contract document that would increase the amount of grant money directed to a Cicero-Hamlin’s SHEBA, to $600,000 from $50,000. In the email, Gallon-Clark said she was following instructions from McCrory.
Elsewhere in the audit, CliftonAllenLarson report that it was unable to account for money Cicero-Hamlin’s nonprofit had been given to start a scholarship program.
“The financial records provided by SHEBA directly contradict the grant report’s assertion that $50,000 was distributed as 50 scholarships of $1,000 each. Instead, the bank detail shows a series of large, irregular transactions, including multiple ‘over counter’ checks and payments unrelated to scholarships, totaling $49,916.59,” the auditors wrote
“The absence of documentation identifying scholarship recipients, combined with these questionable disbursements, strongly suggests that the funds were not used for their intended purpose. This pattern reflects serious misrepresentation and potential misuse of public grant funds, raising significant concerns about compliance and accountability, and without inspecting the books and records for SHEBA, it is not possible to determine the ultimate recipient or purpose of the checks.”
Among the questionable expenditures identified by the auditors: five charges to Netflix, accounted for as Marketing, Publicity and Advertising; retail purchases at Amazon, At Home, Best Buy, BJ’s Wholesale, Target, Walgreens and Walmart; $120,439.00 in checks to unknown recipients; and what appears to be a $7,748.00 payment on a Discover credit card.
The auditors also report that there are cases where they could find no evidence that work for which Cicero-Hamlin was paid was actually completed. One case involved training members of the BHCA board and another involved revising the association’s handbook.
“Despite invoices and payments totaling $84,000 to SHEBA Consulting for handbook revisions, there is no evidence of substantive work product, meaningful policy updates, or documented involvement by Ms.[Sonserae] Cicero-Hamlin. Instead, internal communications show that handbook revision responsibilities were assigned to BHCA staff, and the 2007 handbook remained in use for years following the disbursements to Ms. Cicero-Hamlin.”
A former BHCA board member told the Courant that she cannot recall any board training
“The disbursement activity between BHCA and SHEBA Consulting, as well as directly to Ms. Cicero-Hamlin, reveals a troubling pattern of financial mismanagement, potential fraud, and a complete breakdown of internal controls,” the auditors wrote.
“Over $1.7 million in public funds were distributed based on invoices and budget claims that lack substantiation and supporting documentation.. The absence of oversight, failure to verify deliverables, and willingness to process large payments without due diligence not only facilitated possible fraudulent activity but also exposed BHCA to significant reputational and legal risk. “
McCrory, Cicero-Hamlin and Gallon-Clark have not responded to dozens of calls reaching back over months.
The auditors also raised questions about disbursements from BHCA to other charitable organizations in addition to Cicero-Hamlin’s
Gov. Ned Lamont, responding to questions from reporters Wednesday, stopped short of calling for McCrory, who represents North Hartford and part of Bloomfield, to resign from the Senate, but urged him to step back from his leadership role that includes co-chairmanship of the Education Committee.
McCrory and Cicero-Hamlin are among the subjects of a federal grand jury investigation, which began collecting records in late July pertaining to the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars in government grants among about a half dozen, mostly Hartford area charities and nonprofit organizations.
McCrory is an imposing high school and collegiate basketball standout who has been in the legislature, first as a state representative and later senator, for two decades. Cicero-Hamlin is a member of a well-known Hartford family, but was unknown on the non-profit scene until creating her SHEBA related businesses in 2022.
The grand jury’s subpoenas seek records of “all communications” with McCrory, Cicero-Hamlin and her SHEBA-related entities. Notably, the Department of Economic and Community Development, which ordered the audit and is a major distributor of government grants, was instructed to produce “all documents concerning any personal or non-professional relationship” between the two.
The fact that McCrory and Cicero-Hamlin are, or once were, close was apparent to acquaintances, although some said the two were circumspect about a relationship. One told of attending a party the two hosted at a home they rented in Bloomfield.
In addition to examining how BHCA distributes money directly to charitable organizations, the auditors were critical of indirect transfers, by which money was passed to charities through a second, pass through organization. In those cases, the auditors said it became more difficult to determine who was responsible for determining the funds were spent properly. The report said Cicero-Hamlin’s SHEBA organization was the beneficiary of both direct and indirect transfers.
The audit of the charitable distribution of state grants is scheduled to continue, according to the CliftonAllenLarson report. The auditors said the next phase will focus on obtaining and examining financial documents from the groups to which BHCA distribute state money
“The purpose of these additional procedures is to verify subrecipient spending, assess compliance with grant requirements, and determine whether additional unsupported, unallowable, or potentially fraudulent transactions occurred,” the auditors said.