{"id":369260,"date":"2026-10-09T21:18:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369260\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T21:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:18:47","slug":"ex-supervisor-at-brooklyn-nonprofit-falsely-signed-off-on-adoption-paperwork-doi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369260\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-supervisor at Brooklyn nonprofit falsely signed off on adoption paperwork: DOI"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ex-administrator at a publicly funded nonprofit was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court Friday on allegations that he fraudulently signed off on adoption paperwork, using an unofficial stamp of a higher-up\u2019s signature, according to New York City\u2019s anti-corruption watchdog agency.<\/p>\n

John Olufemi, 66, former supervisor of the permanency unit at Heart Share St. Vincents<\/a>, was charged with two low-level felonies, \u201coffering a false instrument for filing\u201d in the first degree and issuing a false certificate, the Department of Investigation said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs charged, this defendant allegedly misappropriated an executive\u2019s signature at a City-funded nonprofit where he worked, affixing it to critical adoption documents for filing in Family Court,\u201d DOI Commissioner Nadia Shihata<\/a> said in a statement. \u201cHe then allegedly furthered those illegal actions by affixing his Notary Public seal to the falsely signed documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of misconduct undermines the integrity of the adoption process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lancelot Fletcher, Olufemi\u2019s attorney, maintained his client\u2019s innocence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident of the successful outcome of this case. He\u2019s presumed innocent and denies the allegations,\u201d Fletcher told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Mamdani announces his nomination of Nadia Shihata as commissioner of the Department of Investigation (DOI) at City Hall on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (Ed Reed\/Mayoral Photography Office)<\/p>\n

Olufemi first started working at Heart Share St. Vincents in March 2004, and was fired in August 2024 after the investigation, according to a DOI news release. The nonprofit receives funding from the city Administration for Children\u2019s Services.<\/p>\n

Permanency units are responsible for finding stable homes for children in foster care<\/a>, either through reunification with biological parents, a family member as a guardian or adoption.<\/p>\n

As a supervisor, Olufemi was tasked with gathering documents and the signature of the nonprofit\u2019s deputy executive director, then passing along the signed papers as an \u201cadoption packet\u201d to attorneys for the new parents. The attorneys would then file the organization\u2019s adoption packets in family courts<\/a> primarily in Brooklyn, but also in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, when Olufemi was on leave, his colleagues were processing adoption paperwork when they found the deputy executive\u2019s rubber-stamped signature on some pending documents, according to the news release. The executive said she had neither consented to the production of the stamp nor for Olufemi to sign on her behalf.<\/p>\n

From there, the nonprofit found additional paperwork with the stamp that had previously been filed in Family Court, and adoptions already finalized, investigators said. Olufemi was a notary, and he allegedly used his notary stamp to certify the documents.<\/p>\n

The deputy executive director told DOI that Olufemi used the stamp 22 times and used his notary seal on fraudulent documents 15 times between July 1, 2022, and April 30, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, the nonprofit at issue discovered this alleged fraud and reported it promptly to DOI,\u201d Shihata said.<\/p>\n

Olufemi was arrested and charged on Sept. 23, with a notice to appear in court on Friday. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez\u2019s office is prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n

Olufemi\u2019s next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 2, 2027, according to the news release. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ex-administrator at a publicly funded nonprofit was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court Friday on allegations that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[136368,98,100,99,136367,136371,136370,9,24,136372,63,136369],"class_list":["post-369260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-adoption-fraud","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-child-adoption","tag-forged-signature","tag-john-olufemi","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-notary-public","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-department-of-investigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}