A federal grand jury is probing state Sen. Douglas McCrory’s entanglement with a web of nonprofits, corporations and foundations that received and spent millions of dollars in state funding since 2020, as well as his relationship with a woman who runs several of the entities that received money.
The grand jury subpoenas, seeking emails, financial records and other information, were issued less than a week ago to the state Department of Economic and Community Development and the state’s Minority Business Initiative Advisory Council, which is focused on assisting minority-owned businesses in the state.
The grand jury also subpoenaed “All documents concerning any personal or non-professional relationship between Douglas McCrory and Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin,” who is the director of several of the organizations named in the subpoena. McCrory, of Hartford, represents the 2nd District in the Connecticut Senate.
The state released the subpoenas Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
One of the nonprofits Cicero-Hamlin controls, SHEBA Resource Center, received at least $400,000 in state grants, according to state records.
As a Democratic state senator from a district that includes struggling neighborhoods in the North End of Hartford and portions of suburban Bloomfield and Windsor, McCrory is a familiar figure in the city’s network of nonprofits, many of which rely on contacts in state and federal politics for funding.
The subpoenas also seek communications among several DECD officials and the executive directors of those nonprofits.
Cicero-Hamlin controls the Society of Human Engagement and Businesses Alignment, LLC; SHEBA, LLC; SHEBA Resource Center Inc., and SHEBA Consulting LLC, according to state records.
In addition to the $400,000 received by SHEBA Resource Center, The Connecticut Mirror found that Cicero-Hamlin also convinced the state’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, to twice sign off on requests for $3.5 million in federal earmarks. None have been delivered.
Cicero-Hamlin’s businesses also are linked to other grants issued to a bigger nonprofit that distributed a portion to her companies.
Her companies specialize in human resources and other related consulting, according to their websites.
New details in investigation
The existence of the grand jury investigation was first reported by The Hartford Courant last week.
But the two subpoenas released Wednesday provide new details about the direction of the federal investigation. The state has until Aug. 19 to turn over the documents.
The subpoenas suggest that federal prosecutors are interested in whether, and to what extent, McCrory assisted Cicero-Hamlin in obtaining state grants and other funding.
Federal authorities are broadly asking for “all documents concerning any factual misrepresentation or omissions used to obtain or attempt to obtain grants, loans, or funding.”
The subpoenas also seek any documents in which state officials reference being “aware” of possible violations of federal law, including conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud or money laundering.
Neither McCrory nor Cicero-Hamlin responded Wednesday to The Connecticut Mirror’s request for comment on the investigation.
It’s unclear exactly how much money the state has provided to Cicero-Hamlin’s companies in recent years. But records show that one of her businesses, SHEBA, received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Minority Business Initiative Advisory Council, which McCrory sits on.
CT Inside Investigator published a story this week that reported that McCrory personally pushed for SHEBA to receive $300,000 from the council in 2022 in return for the company running a certification program focused on helping small businesses scale up.
The story also highlighted emails in which the other nonprofit leaders reportedly questioned Cicero-Hamlin’s financial recordkeeping and how her company was representing itself.
Other state money could have found its way to SHEBA as well.
In October 2022, the state bond commission awarded grants of $5 million to Hartford-based nonprofit Girls for Technology and $7.7 million to HEDCO Inc. to provide assistance to small businesses through loan-making and technical assistance programs. HEDCO was among a handful of community development financial institutions selected by the state to administer loans through the Small Business Boost Fund.
Both organizations would go on to partner with SHEBA. Girls for Technology worked with SHEBA on a business acceleration and loan program, described on the DECD website as “advisement, consultation, planning, and technical support for 20 small business owners annually.” HEDCO and the Spanish American Merchants Association launched a $3 million business accelerator program with SHEBA in 2023 to “provide financial relief and recovery resources to minority-owned and women-owned small businesses,” according to an announcement on HEDCO’s website.
It’s not clear how much money was distributed to SHEBA for those projects.
McCrory was also involved in discussions that went beyond state funding, the CT Mirror confirmed this week.
McCrory and Cicero-Hamlin met with Murphy in January 2024 at the funeral home owned by Howard K. Hill, who sits on the Minority Business Initiative advisory council with McCrory and is also the executive director of the Prosperity Foundation, one of the nonprofits named in the subpoena.
Hill declined to comment Wednesday.
The meeting was to discuss getting Murphy’s assistance in securing federal funding opportunities for North Hartford, the senator said on social media at the time.
Murphy publicized the meeting in an Instagram post: “Thanks to @senatormccrory for bringing together a table of leaders in Hartford’s north end this morning to talk about how to get more federal funding into this historic, vibrant neighborhood.”
Months later, Cicero-Hamlin sought federal money through Murphy and Blumenthal to transform a former Roman Catholic Church she had just purchased for $10 on Market Street in Hartford into new offices for her companies. She also requested operational funding.
In an interview Tuesday before the release of the subpoenas, Murphy said he and his staff relied on local contacts to evaluate requests for “congressionally directed spending.”
“When we’re being asked for money for specific local organizations, obviously we try to get a sense of how well they’re thought of in the neighborhood or the city,” Murphy said. “We rely on local people to make sure we’re dealing with folks who have the best interest of the community in mind.”
Cicero-Hamlin’s initial access to public funding came in 2022 with the creation of a nonprofit with the same name as her for-profit ventures, SHEBA.
The Sheba Resource Center got a $150,000 state grant in the 2023 fiscal year, which began July 1, 2022, and grants of $100,000 and $150,000 in the following two years. Most were federal pass-through funds.
Her nonprofit status allowed her to apply to the offices of Blumenthal and Murphy for congressionally directed spending, which essentially are earmarks controlled by senators. For-profits are ineligible.
She sought $3.5 million to relocate her SHEBA Resource Center to the former church at 121-125 Market St. in Hartford. The senators signed off on the application, but the Appropriations Committee reduced the request to $800,000. The money never came due to the failure of Congress to pass a budget.
This spring, the senators approved an identical $3.5 million request for the next fiscal year. But the senators have asked the Appropriations Committee not to consider it, due to the disclosures related to the subpoenas, Murphy’s office said Wednesday.
Cicero-Hamlin claimed support for the project from the city of Hartford and seven other entities, including several covered in the federal subpoenas: Blue Hills Civic Association, Prosperity Foundation, Upper Albany Collaborative and the Legacy Foundation.
“The requested funding for this project would be used to develop our headquarters co-working facility and incubation center for entrepreneurs in need of transitional space, technical assistance, and back-office support services across the state of CT,” she said in her application.
