A former supervisor at a Brooklyn child welfare nonprofit is facing felony charges after investigators say he used an unofficial stamp of a higher-up’s signature and his own notary seal to push adoption paperwork through family courts without proper authorization. John Olufemi, 66, once ran the permanency unit at HeartShare St. Vincent’s Services, where his job was to shepherd foster children toward stable, permanent homes.
Olufemi was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on September 23 on two low-level felonies: offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and issuing a false certificate, according to the New York Daily News. The city’s Department of Investigation said Olufemi misappropriated an executive’s signature at the city-funded nonprofit and affixed it to adoption documents destined for family court. He also allegedly stamped his notary public seal onto the same falsely signed paperwork, according to DOI.
Nadia Shihata said the alleged misconduct undermined the integrity of the adoption process, per the same account. HeartShare St. Vincent’s Services, founded in 1869 as a refuge for homeless boys and headquartered on Boerum Place in downtown Brooklyn since 1906, is one of New York City’s largest voluntary child welfare agencies, according to HeartShare St. Vincent’s Services. The nonprofit receives funding from the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, which contracts with agencies like it to handle foster care boarding, permanency units, and adoption placements across the five boroughs, per the NYC Administration for Children’s Services.
How the Alleged Scheme Worked
Olufemi started working at HeartShare St. Vincent’s in March 2004 and was tasked with gathering adoption documents and securing the deputy executive director’s signature before passing the signed papers to attorneys representing new parents, the Daily News reported. Those attorneys then filed the adoption packets in family courts, primarily in Brooklyn but also in the Bronx. Permanency units like the one Olufemi supervised are responsible for finding stable homes for children in foster care…