A veteran city Administration for Children’s Services staffer allegedly lied about being at work in order to cash in on his taxpayer-funded salary — when he was actually on jaunts to Africa and across the US, authorities announced Wednesday.
Bola Alade-Gbami, 72, is accused of pocketing $21,000 from the city while sitting at home or on out-of-town trips — including to Texas, Missouri and Nigeria — at least eight times between 2017 and February, Manhattan prosecutors and the city’s Department of Investigation said in a press release.
Alade-Gbami — whose job includes arranging rides to school for at-risk children under ACS care — also used a car service contracted by the city agency to have himself chauffeured to work, even though he wasn’t chaperoning kids at the time, officials alleged.
“During a citywide staffing shortage this child welfare specialist, as charged, clocked in while he was not working, including when he was traveling abroad and claimed overtime hours that he never worked,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement.
“This brazen misconduct, as alleged, is a violation of his duty to the city and to the public,” Strauber said, “and it is also a crime.”
Alade-Gbami, who has worked for the city agency since 1996 and had a $104,207 yearly salary in 2022, was hit with one count of grand larceny and eight counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, a felony.
He is accused of repeatedly falsifying his time sheets to claim he was working when he was home, late for work or traveling out of town on trips to Dallas, St. Louis, Nigeria and Togo, most recently on February 27.
Prosecutors said Alade-Gbami also took advantage of his job as a congregate-care specialist — who chaperones ACS children to class and other appointments — by using the taxpayer-funded car service for his commute.
Even with the city-funded perk, Alade-Gbami allegedly failed to make it into work on time on several occasions, yet lied on his timecard to collect about $9,000 in unearned salary, prosecutors said.
“This defendant swore an oath to serve the people of New York City but instead allegedly swindled thousands of dollars of taxpayer money through dishonesty,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
“The Manhattan DA’s office does not tolerate fraud in any form,” Bragg said.
Alade-Gbami was arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court and released without bail pending a return court appearance on June 21, prosecutors said.
He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
“We hold our employees to the highest standard and have zero tolerance for fraud,” an ACS spokesperson said in a statement. “We thank the Department of Investigation for this thorough investigation. We are taking disciplinary action.”