Christopher Ryan, Acting Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued the following statement on the sentencing today of a Bronx man who pled guilty in connection with stealing nine adoption subsidy checks valued at a total of $38,471. 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 prosecuted the case.
TRAVON TAYLOR, 30, of Bronx, N.Y., was sentenced today to three years’ probation, 50 days of community service, and $10,000 in restitution, as part of a plea agreement in November 2025 in which TAYLOR entered a guilty plea to Petit Larceny, a class A misdemeanor. TAYLOR was arrested and charged in May 2025;
Acting DOI Commissioner Christopher Ryan said, “Today’s sentence recognizes this defendant’s illegal conduct: fraudulently endorsing checks and misusing tens of thousands of dollars in adoption subsidies. These precious funds are intended to support adoptive families and children in foster care. There is no tolerance for theft from City-administered programs, especially those intended to serve New York City families. I thank ACS for reporting the matter to DOI and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for its partnership in this investigation.”
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.
Acting Commissioner Ryan also thanked ACS for their cooperation and assistance in the investigation. This investigation was conducted by Deputy Inspector General Harlyn Griffenberg with DOI’s Office of the Inspector General for ACS and supervised by Senior Inspector General Laura Millendorf and Deputy Commissioner/Chief of Investigations Dominick Zarrella.
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