A former supervisor at a Brooklyn child welfare nonprofit is facing felony charges after investigators say he used an unofficial stamp of a higher-up's signature and his own notary seal to push adoption paperwork through family courts without proper authorization. John Olufemi, 66, once ran the permanency unit at HeartShare St. Vincent's Services, where his job was to shepherd foster children toward stable, permanent homes.
Olufemi was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on September 23 on two low-level felonies: offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and issuing a false certificate, according to the New York Daily News. The city's Department of Investigation said Olufemi misappropriated an executive's signature at the city-funded nonprofit and affixed it to adoption documents destined for family court. He also allegedly stamped his notary public seal onto the same falsely signed paperwork, according to DOI.
Nadia Shihata said the alleged misconduct undermined the integrity of the adoption process, per the same account. HeartShare St. Vincent's Services, founded in 1869 as a refuge for homeless boys and headquartered on Boerum Place in downtown Brooklyn since 1906, is one of New York City's largest voluntary child welfare agencies, according to HeartShare St. Vincent's Services. The nonprofit receives funding from the New York City Administration for Children's Services, which contracts with agencies like it to handle foster care boarding, permanency units, and adoption placements across the five boroughs, per the NYC Administration for Children's Services.
How the Alleged Scheme Worked
Olufemi started working at HeartShare St. Vincent's in March 2004 and was tasked with gathering adoption documents and securing the deputy executive director's signature before passing the signed papers to attorneys representing new parents, the Daily News reported. Those attorneys then filed the adoption packets in family courts, primarily in Brooklyn but also in the Bronx. Permanency units like the one Olufemi supervised are responsible for finding stable homes for children in foster care.
The alleged scheme came apart in July 2024, when colleagues discovered the deputy executive director's rubber-stamped signature on pending documents, according to the outlet's reporting. The deputy executive director said she never consented to the stamp's production or to Olufemi signing on her behalf. The nonprofit subsequently found additional stamped paperwork that had already been filed in family court, and investigators determined that those adoptions had already been finalized. HeartShare St. Vincent's fired Olufemi the following month, in August 2024.
Numbers Behind the Charges
Investigators allege Olufemi used the deputy executive director's stamp 22 times and his own notary seal on fraudulent documents 15 times, according to the paper's account. He allegedly used his notary stamp to certify the documents he knew to be fraudulent. The Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez's office is prosecuting the case, and Olufemi faces up to four years in prison if convicted.
Under New York Penal Law Section 175.35, offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree is a Class E felony requiring prosecutors to prove a person knowingly submitted a false written document to a public office with specific intent to defraud a government entity, according to Saland Law. Separately, issuing a false certificate under Penal Law Section 175.40 is also a Class E felony when a notary public or authorized official issues a document knowing it contains false information with intent to deceive, per the New York State Department of State.
A Defense Built on Intent
Olufemi's attorney, Lancelot Fletcher, has maintained his client's innocence, saying Olufemi is presumed innocent and denies the allegations. That defense centers on a key legal threshold: Class E felonies are the lowest tier of felony offenses in New York, carrying a maximum of four years in state prison, though first-time non-violent offenders may instead receive up to five years of probation, according to Tilem & Associates. To sustain either charge, prosecutors must still establish that Olufemi acted with specific intent to defraud, not merely that he made a procedural error.
Under New York State Office of Children and Family Services guidelines, every adoption packet submitted to Family Court requires verified administrative signatures and formal executive approval from an authorized agency official before a judge can legally finalize an adoption. That requirement is meant to serve as a procedural safeguard protecting child safety and legal compliance, according to the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Scrutiny
The case fits into a wider pattern of city scrutiny over foster care administration. DOI had already reviewed procurement and oversight controls at HeartShare St. Vincent's Services in an October 2024 compliance examination covering city-funded foster care agencies, according to the NYC Department of Investigation. More recently, in July 2026, DOI and law enforcement partners arrested three individuals across two separate cases involving the fraudulent theft of state adoption subsidies meant for foster children and adoptive families in New York City.
New York City's foster care population has been shrinking, falling to 6,414 children in fiscal year 2025, with citywide foster care adoptions totaling between 123 and 132 annually through city-contracted agencies, according to the Center for New York City Affairs. HeartShare St. Vincent's Services was also previously named alongside city officials as a co-defendant in a federal civil rights lawsuit in the Southern District of New York concerning child welfare foster care administration, court records show.
Olufemi's next court appearance is scheduled for February 2, 2027. For now, the question of whether any finalized adoptions tied to the allegedly falsified paperwork will require further court review remains unresolved in the public record.
