New York, NY Two recent cases have pointed to major problems in New York’s Child Welfare System. A New York Times Story of 1 August 2008 reports that Lethem Duncan, 62, plead guilty to embezzling large sums of money intended for children with special needs:
“I agreed with other persons to embezzle money from A.C.S.,” Mr. Duncan said in United States District Court in Manhattan as he addressed the first of six counts to which he pleaded guilty.
Duncan worked with other employees to create phantom adoptions and issue subsidy checks. He also arranged to pay funds to a private contractor for services that were never performed. The amount of diverted money that has been identified totals about $500,000 but this estimate may be lower than the actual amount diverted.
The announcement of he guilty plea came one day after Judith Leekin was sentenced who was convicted of fraud. Leekin used 4 aliases to adopt 11 children with disabilities and collected $1,680,000 in subsidies from New York Child Welfare System. Now, aged 16 to 28 the children were abused,beaten, neglected, restrained, handcuffed, and warehoused under inhumane conditions for years before being discovered in Florida. See the Associated Press Video below for more on this story.
