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City Workers Stole Over Half A Million Dollars in Public Funds: Officials

 Several city employees with the Human Resources Administration were charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in food stamp funds, June 25, 2015.
Several city employees with the Human Resources Administration were charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in food stamp funds, June 25, 2015.
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HRA

MANHATTAN — A dozen people were charged Thursday with bilking taxpayers out of more than half a million in various public assistance schemes, including fraudulently issuing food stamps, according to the city’s Department of Investigation.

Human Resources Administration employee Harry Fletcher, 44, was responsible for more than half of the bilked funds — more than $250,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — doled out to several people during a six-year period, according to the city watchdog. He bragged about his scheme, saying he had been “rocking this for years,” according to officials.

“City workers who steal public funds undercut the effectiveness of government and its ability to help some of the neediest New Yorkers,” DOI Commissioner Mark Peters said.

“This is fraud at its most shameful: [Human Resource Administration] employees who used their public positions to enrich themselves and their associates, rather than the eligible individuals who willingly and diligently went through the vetting process, according to the charges.”

Fletcher was accused of working with two people — who have been charged but not named by officials because they are cooperating with the investigation. They improperly received benefits between 2009 and 2015 and also recruited others to take part in the scheme, according to the DOI.

In return, the two people periodically paid Fletcher between $100 to $200 for the benefits.

Bronx residents Yesenia Velazquez, 37, Joseph Bull, 39 and Kenneth Williamson, 51, were also accused of defrauding the HRA ouf tens of thousands of dollars in public funds.

Jamaica, Queens resident James For, 52, was also charged with scamming the HRA out of more than $20,000.

Brooklyn resident Peter Ransome, 60, a clerk who worked in an HRA office in Staten Island, was charged in a separate investigation with improperly using another HRA employee’s ID to distribute more than $90,000 in public funds to his friend, Jenneha Cooper, 26, of Staten Island.

Ransome resigned in March 2014 as a result of the investigation.

The employees and associates are facing charges including welfare fraud, grand larceny, mail fraud and soliciting bribes.

They all face seven to 20 years in prison on the top charges.