The founder of a nonprofit organization now at the center of a federal investigation into how Connecticut distributed millions in state and federal taxpayer dollars has a personal and professional history that could have raised red flags at either the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) or contracted nonprofit organizations, had anyone conducted a background check.

Sonserae Cicero – who has gone by Sonserae Morgan, and Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin – founded her human resources consulting company called the Society of Human Engagement and Business Alignment (SHEBA) in 2018, before forming SHEBA’s nonprofit in 2022, just months before her organizations began to receive a windfall of federal and state dollars that topped out at roughly $3.4 million between 2021 and 2025.

Those payments are now at the center of a federal grand jury investigation, according to subpoenas sent to the DECD and the Minority Business Initiative (MBI), which sought, among other things, any documents regarding a personal relationship between Cicero and Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford. McCrory pushed for SHEBA to receive those funds through his position as a senator, his role on Minority Business Initiative (MBI) board and through his influence at the Blue Hill Civic Association (BHCA) through which SHEBA received roughly $1.4 million, according to tax records.

According to judicial records out of Leon and Duval counties in Florida, Cicero was arrested multiple times for passing bad checks, petty theft, and failure to vacate a property between the years 1991 and 2000; one of those incidents was under the name Sonserae Morgan. 

Federal records show that in 2010 Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin, together with Bernie Hamlin, filed for bankruptcy, but the case was dismissed when the pair failed to follow through with producing the necessary documentation. Cicero was twice taken to court by Manchester Memorial Hospital & Rockville Hospital in 2016 and 2018 to collect medical debts totaling $1,244 and $2,025 respectively.

Cicero also opened a business and a nonprofit in Florida that were registered to home addresses, which then appeared to go nowhere. Some of the individuals involved in that business and nonprofit appear to be the same individuals involved in SHEBA. 

Cicero, together with Maurice D. Morgan and Virginia Bagley, started Morgan Staffing Inc. in 1999. The company filed one report in 2000 and is listed as inactive. 

Records show Sonserae, who lists East Hartford as her place of birth, married Maurice Dean Morgan in 1995. Although records indicate the couple later divorced, SHEBA’s staff page shows a Maurice D. Morgan II as SHEBA’s director of veterans’ initiative and affairs, and a Maurice Morgan II is listed as a board member for SHEBA’s nonprofit. 

There is also an individual with the last name Bagley listed as another SHEBA board member, although it is not Virginia Bagley, who appears to have been Cicero’s roommate with whom Cicero was evicted from her residence in 1991.

Similarly, in 2019, just as Cicero had started SHEBA’s for profit consulting company, she began 1HAAT, Inc in Florida, a nonprofit “committed to empowering formerly incarcerated woman in creating a better future for themselves and their children through education, life coaching, and mentorship,” according to the initial filing. No follow up reports were filed, there is no trace of the organization online, and it is listed as inactive. The registered agent for 1HAAT, Inc is Chavonnique Wilkinson Davis, who is also listed as a SHEBA board member.

Reached for comment, Cicero’s attorney offered only limited comment, saying there are “different people by the name of Maurice Morgan,” and that, “Ms. Cicero did not start 1HAAT with Ms. Wilkinson.” Cicero is listed as a director of 1HAAT and lists her home address in East Hartford. The attorney did not respond to follow-up questions seeking clarification of those statements.

None of this would have necessarily precluded Cicero or the SHEBA organization from receiving state grant money to offer training and support to small businesses and entrepreneurs – the criminal charges were decades old, and medical debt and bankruptcy can happen for a variety of reasons – but it could have raised red flags for a startup nonprofit.

Although the DECD had routed $500,000 to SHEBA in 2021 through the Hartford Economic Development Corporation (HEDCO), the $300,000 awarded through the MBI, which DECD administered, was their first direct payment to the organization. 

However, when MBI board member George Mathanool raised concerns about distributing MBI funds to a startup, he was quickly shot down by Sen. McCrory, who chastised Mathanool for “not having his facts straight.” 

But there also appeared to be confusion as to Cicero’s employment background. During the exchange between Mathanool and McCrory, Shiela Hummel, business development program manager for the DECD, stated that Cicero “was a top executive at Walgreens,” and later that Cicero “had a high executive position at Walgreens.”

Cicero lists her experience as “improving talent development in companies with portfolios over $100 billion,” and “Chair of the Women of Walgreens Boots Alliance,” on SHEBA’s website.

In no communication or documentation, however, does Cicero represent herself as a former Walgreens executive, and it is unclear how that description by Hummel came about.

Reached for comment, a Walgreens communications manager would only confirm that Cicero had formerly been employed as a Human Resources manager at the Walgreens distribution facility in Windsor, but said she was not an “executive,” for the company. The company could not confirm Cicero as former chair of the Women of Walgreens Boots Alliance.

It was also Hummel who began to pump the brakes on SHEBA’s multiple efforts to acquire more American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Dollars as rumors of McCrory and Cicero’s relationship began to circulate, including $350,000 in ARPA funds that CT Next planned to allocate to SHEBA.

Reached for comment, Jim Watson of the DECD said that the department only requires applicants to their competitive grant and loan programs to disclose pending legal issues, background checks in multiple databases, and audited financial statements and 990 forms for nonprofits. As subrecipients, SHEBA did not fall into those categories.

“The vast majority of the state funds SHEBA accessed were through other providers – not DECD. The one exception was when the MBI board approved funding for SHEBA,” Watson wrote in an email. “DECD provided administrative support to the board and processed the funding at their direction. In both these cases, background reviews are not required under DECD’s policies and procedures.”

However, DECD was aware that money granted to these nonprofits was flowing directly to SHEBA as a subcontractor; it was part of the contracts signed by DECD. 

In 2023, SHEBA was contracted to receive $400,000 per year for five years as part of a $5 million grant under a partnership with another nonprofit, Girls for Technology (GFT). This partnership was reviewed and approved by the department and was included in GFT’s proposal.

Similarly, the DECD directed $6 million in Minority Business Revolving Loan funds and COVID-19 funds to go through the Hartford Economic Development Corporation to SHEBA to administer forgivable loans and lines of credit to small businesses, according to HEDCO’s audit filed with the Office of Policy and Management. The State Department of Education also routed $100,000 to SHEBA that had previously been allocated to the Town of Bloomfield.

Under the terms of these deals, businesses would have to complete SHEBA’s training program to be eligible for a low-interest loan, an arrangement that appears to have been repeated multiple times, with even the City of Hartford offering grant money in a similar arrangement. It is unclear how Cicero’s background — given that she was not a Walgreens executive, nor had successfully run a business prior to SHEBA — would have indicated an expertise in training small and startup businesses to be successful.

Watson, however, said that DECD “does not conduct background checks on individuals associated with nonprofit organizations,” and says that part of the Girls for Technology application included “SHEBA team members, detailing their backgrounds, roles, and responsibilities.” 

“Our primary focus is on the organization itself and its capacity to deliver the required services, specifically to the small business community,” Watson wrote. “We expect our grant recipients to consider similar factors when selecting their subrecipient partners.”

In a previous interview with Hearst, both McCrory and Cicero said they did nothing “illegal,” but would not elaborate further on the nature of their relationship. Records obtained by Inside Investigator show McCrory asking a DECD official why SHEBA hasn’t received its first payment of $150,000, and that he had pushed for SHEBA to receive money through the Community Investment Fund and introduced Cicero to the CT Lottery Corp. 

Although McCrory and SHEBA have captured many headlines, they are not the only individuals and nonprofits named in the federal subpoenas. BHCA, which lost $300,000 through a wire transfer scam and was forced to shut down, is also included; as is the Prosperity Foundation, which is run by an MBI board member, and a Hartford-area attorney who had previously worked on McCrory’s campaign and was associated with Cicero.

Subpoenas are merely requests for information, not allegations, and while federal officials are investigating – reportedly interviewing the owner of a house in Bloomfield rumored to be shared by McCrory and Cicero – no charges have been filed.

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