Jocelyn E. Strauber, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued the following statement on the arrest today of a Bronx man charged with stealing nine adoption subsidy checks valued at a total of $38,471 between December 2021 and September 2022. The benefits were administered by the City Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”), which notified DOI that the recipient reported she had not received checks mailed to her home address in the Bronx, yet the checks had been cashed. DOI investigated with the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case.
DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said, “This defendant, as charged, fraudulently endorsed checks intended to assist adoptive families and children in foster care and wrongfully pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in adoption subsidies. I thank ACS for reporting the matter to DOI and the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office for its partnership to protect funds intended to support New York City families.”
TRAVON TAYLOR, 30, of Bronx, N.Y., was charged today with nine counts each of the following offenses: Grand Larceny in the Third Degree and Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, which are class D felonies; Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony; and Petit Larceny and Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Third Degree, which are class A misdemeanors. Upon conviction, a class D felony is punishable by up to seven years in prison, a class E felony by up to four years in prison, and a class A misdemeanor by up to a year’s incarceration. TAYLOR was arraigned later today and released on his own recognizance.
According to the criminal complaint, between December 1, 2021 and September 6, 2022, records from ACS showed that approximately nine adoption subsidy checks, valued at a total of $38,471.35, were issued by mail to a 68-year-old Bronx woman who stated she had not received them and subsequently filled out nine Lost Check Affidavits with ACS’s Banking Unit. A review of bank records associated with the defendant’s bank account found that the missing checks, valued at $38,471.35, were deposited into the defendant’s account between December 8, 2021 and September 6, 2022. The 68-year-old Bronx woman reviewed the deposit slips for the missing checks and confirmed that the signatures on those checks, which purported to be her signatures, were not hers and that she did not give the defendant permission to take, sign, or otherwise alter or deposit these checks.
Commissioner Strauber also thanked ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser and his staff for their cooperation and assistance in the investigation.
A criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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