http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/03/24/2008-03-24_center_facing_new_accounts_of_missing_fu.html
Center facing new accounts of missing funds
BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Monday, March 24th 2008, 4:00 AM
Thousands of dollars have vanished from the accounts of several mentally retarded clients in the care of an embattled Sunset Park agency for disabled children and adults, the Daily News has learned.
The money is missing from Evelyn Douglin Center clients' personal allowance accounts, two state reviews have found - in violation of state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities regulations.
"It's insane, an absolute nightmare. The spending money that was supposed to go to these people just disappeared from their bank accounts," said Melissa Alter, 29, a former Evelyn Douglin quality assurance specialist. "When I alerted management, they fired me," she added.
The missing money was supposed to be set aside for residents to go to movies, buy snacks or pay for recreational expenses.
Evelyn Douglin has 10 residential homes spread throughout Brooklyn and Queens, each housing six to 10 mentally disabled adults.
To pay for services, residents' Social Security checks are deposited directly to the center, which is then required to give each client a monthly allowance of $139 before using the remaining balance to cover costs.
Alter, who started her job with Douglin in January, quickly realized that the numbers didn't add up.
"When I told them that one client didn't have any money in his account for five straight months, management looked at me like I had two heads," said Alter. "Another time, I saw a withdrawal of $96 from a client's account for a bag of chips. When I asked the supervisor where the rest of the money went, he just looked at me and shrugged his shoulder."
This isn't the first time that Evelyn Douglin clients' money has gone missing: A 2004 audit conducted by the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities revealed that $8,607 was unaccounted for in client funds.
Evelyn Douglin founder and former Executive Director Seibert Phillips agreed to reimburse the clients' personal allowance costs in full.
He was forced out of the nonprofit organization last month after a scathing report by state watchdogs cited Phillips and his board of directors for grievous financial abuse, waste and fraud.
Phillips is under joint investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office and the state attorney general.

from NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/04/06/2008-04-06_champion_of_disabled_a_fraud_who_cashed_.html
'Champion' of disabled a fraud who cashed in, say watchdogs
BY HEIDI EVANS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 6th 2008, 4:00 AM

Seibert Phillips
Seibert Phillips, once a rising star among those who care for the city's 119,000 developmentally disabled, is a man of many faces, secrets and lies.
He is also a fraud, according to state watchdogs.
After a 12-year unchecked climb, the former $300,000-a-year executive director of the Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need (SPIN) is under a growing cloud of alleged corruption and financial wrongdoing.
The Brooklyn district attorney and state attorney general's office are looking at how Phillips - who amassed $14 million in government grants - used SPIN as his personal piggy bank - including giving a friend $250,000 for a no-show job; allowing his son to rack up nearly $18,000 in gas charges on an agency credit card; giving illegal campaign contributions to a Queens assemblywoman; and spending tens of thousands of dollars on luxury cars, flat-screen TVs and travel for himself and staff.
Phillips was removed from his post in February.
Phillips, who founded SPIN in 1996, also lied about his credentials, claiming he was a certified social worker with bachelor's and master's degrees. Neither was true.
Yet he was able to start his own agency from his tiny Brooklyn apartment with a $27,000 government grant and grow it to a $14 million social service empire without any real scrutiny. The center now runs 10 group homes and day services for more than 300 adults and children.
"It's really a blow to have this happen in the middle of our community," said Margaret Puddington, chairwoman of the Manhattan Consumer Council, a parents advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities. "It tarnishes the excellent work that most agencies provide."
The Daily News unmasked Phillips in a series of stories that began in February, after Phillips' former assistant - disturbed by the improper expenditures - blew the whistle to state mental health watchdogs.
"I was basically told to mind my own business," said Tara Cernacek when she questioned her boss in 2006 about the no-show job for his friend Carlos Ortiz. "Even the janitor was driving a luxury SUV."
So who is Seibert Phillips?
Those who worked closely with him describe a complex and mercurial man, an agile political networker who seemed committed to helping the disabled.
But what motivated Seibert, a Barbados native who favors Brooks Brothers' clothes and fine wine, to take a path of alleged wrongdoing is not known. He has refused numerous requests for interviews.
Colleagues admired him for his voice on behalf of some of New York's most vulnerable - a man who would drive in the middle of the night from his Rockland County home to the Brooklyn adult residences to make sure staff were not neglecting the mentally retarded and handicapped people in his care.
"His presentation style was excellent. He sounded like he knew his stuff," said one colleague who served on a panel with Phillips. "What happened is so tragic because I think he could have been a phenomenal success story."
But many co-workers also saw a dark side.
"No one's bringing me down," Phillips would thunder for no apparent reason during staff meetings, according to Sharon Williams, who worked with Phillips for almost three years at SPIN.
"He was very controlling and lashed out at people. I would hear him scream and curse at the staff if he perceived them to be underperforming," she added.
Many providers in the close knit disability world said they were outraged when they read about Phillips' lavish spending.
"How could he afford to pay himself such a high salary and spend money on luxury cars and no-show jobs, when I know having been in the field just how hard we have to contend with budget constraints?" said one angry provider. "We are all funded the same way, and no one I know has an extra penny. We all scrimp!"