SF City Hall Employee Who Embezzled $627K, Bought VR Headsets With It, Pleads Guilty

"Ellicott was charged in January 2024 for invoicing the city $14,000 for earthquake supplies. But according to his charging statement from the DA's office, The actual items purchased were three Oculus virtual reality headsets, four Rylo Action cameras, an HDTV projector, a Nikon DSLR camera worth nearly $2,000, four GoPro cameras, three mini instant cameras, six Microsoft tablets, and four OSMO pocket cameras with expansion kits. Moreover, Ellicott then went and just resold most of these items on eBay."

"And while this may be the beginning of the end of his saga, Ellicott's embezzlement was just a subplot to a larger bribery investigation into the city's former director of the SF Community Challenge Grant Program Lanita Henriquez, and former Gavin Newsom mayoral staffer Dwayne Jones. Both of them are accused of bribery and kickbacks with city funds that were supposed to be used for civic improvement projects."

Stanley Ellicott, former assistant director of finance and technology for the San Francisco City Hall HR workers' comp division, pleaded guilty to charges of embezzlement and fraud. He invoiced the city $14,000 for earthquake supplies but purchased consumer electronics — including Oculus headsets, action cameras, a Nikon DSLR, Microsoft tablets, and more — then resold many items on eBay. Investigators allege he later embezzled $625,000 from SF workers' compensation funds through a shell company posing as an auditing service, prompting 62 felony charges. The case connects to a larger bribery probe involving Lanita Henriquez and Dwayne Jones over misused civic improvement funds.

Read at sfist.com