The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) awarded $500,000 to the Society for Human Engagement and Business Alignment (SHEBA) in 2021 as part of a $550,000 grant funneled through the Hartford Economic Development Corporation (HEDCO), a nonprofit organization that serves as administrator for low-interest loans for Hartford area small businesses and startups.
According to documents obtained by Inside Investigator, DECD awarded $550,000 from the Minority Revolving Loan Fund over two years to HEDCO to “provide small business education, training and financial support services to minority and women owned businesses,” but most of the money went to SHEBA, an organization comprised of for-profit and nonprofit entities that is at the center of a federal grand jury investigation into how state and federal money was awarded to Hartford area nonprofits.
“SHEBA (a sub-recipient) will receive $250,000 per year to perform comprehensive assessments of MWBEs small business needs and provide targeted education, training and skills,” DECD Deputy Commissioner Gwendolyn Thames wrote in the 2021 award letter. Tax records for HEDCO show SHEBA received the full $500,000 cash grant for “comprehensive small business support to minority women entrepreneurs,” in 2021.
In 2022, SHEBA and HEDCO partnered again to administer $3 million in small business and startup loans, with loan applicants being required to go through SHEBA’s business certification program to become eligible for forgivable loans. SHEBA was provided $300,000 in Minority Business Initiative funds for this program, and documents, emails, and meeting transcripts show Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Bloomfield, advocated strongly for SHEBA to receive a variety of different grants.
Federal authorities, seeking to untangle a web of intersecting Hartford-area nonprofits, have sought documents pertaining to any personal relationship between McCrory and SHEBA’s founder, Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin.
But finding out just how much money flowed to SHEBA through its various connections has proven complex, as it appears to have come from a variety of places and programs, and not just from the state of Connecticut. The City of Hartford also awarded American Rescue Plan money to SHEBA as a grant sub-recipient in 2024.
In 2024, newly elected Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, Sen. McCrory, City Council President Shirley Surgeon, and House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, announced $1.7 million in American Rescue Plan dollars were going to support business development for the Upper Albany section of Hartford through a partnership between SHEBA and the Upper Albany Main Street Program that closely resembles the partnership between SHEBA and HEDCO.
Under the plan, SHEBA and Upper Albany Main Street would assess and train businesses before they could become eligible for $15,000 in grant assistance “to improve digital literacy, financial planning, and operational efficiency,” according to the press release. According to tax records, the Upper Albany Main Street Program had only taken in $1.5 million over the previous four years combined.
Cicero started SHEBA’s for-profit business in 2018, and started the nonprofit entity, business consulting LLC, and cannabis consulting company just months before receiving the $300,000 award through the Minority Business Initiative in 2022. Those payments were made in two $150,000 installments in 2023 and 2025. SHEBA also received $100,000 in federal pass-through grants from the State Department of Education in 2024, according to state records.
McCrory not only sits on the MBI Advisory Board, but is also the chair of the Legislature’s Education Committee.
According to tax documents and reporting by the Hartford Courant, the Blue Hills Civic Association, which administers state grants to nonprofits and is also included in the federal investigation, awarded a grant and consulting fees totaling $1.7 million to SHEBA’s for-profit consulting company in 2023.
SHEBA also partnered with Girls for Technology to receive a $5 million grant in 2023 that would, again, see SHEBA train small business entrepreneurs. To date, the state has dispersed $2.3 million to Girls for Technology, another nonprofit included in the federal subpoenas, although it is unclear at this time how much of that money has gone to SHEBA.
SHEBA was also the recipient of two Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020 and 2021, totaling $59,023 to maintain five jobs in the organization, both of which were forgiven.
But Cicero Hamlin had applied for – and nearly received – many more grants. State officials at the DECD began to pump the brakes when they learned more of McCrory’s alleged relationship with Cicero-Hamlin, according to sources, and as they received word of the multiple grants Cicero-Hamlin was seeking.
CTNext under the DECD sought to award SHEBA $350,000 in ARPA funds, according to emails. However, there is no record of SHEBA receiving the money, according to the state’s ARPA reports. Sen. McCrory also pushed for SHEBA to receive a grant from the Community Investment Fund, but that was denied because SHEBA was deemed ineligible.
According to emails, former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin authored a letter of support for SHEBA’s application for a grant through DECD’s Communities Challenge Grant, which was meant to “enhance the livability, vibrancy, convenience, and equity of communities throughout the state.”
“As stated previously, Society of Human Engagement and Business Alignment (SHEBA) has the City of Hartford’s support on this project. That said, I wanted to ensure I forwarded the letter of support from Mayor Bronin,” Cicero Hamlin wrote in a 2023 email to Kimberly Parsons-Whitaker of the Communities Challenge Grant program. The forwarded email was from Bronin’s chief of staff, Lady Mendoza. The letter attachment was not included in the released documents, nor was SHEBA’s plan for the Communities Challenge Grant.
Connecticut’s senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal had earmarked $3.5 million in federal funds for SHEBA, which was later reduced to $800,000, but the money never materialized, according to CT Mirror.
The investigation and request for subpoenas encompass a number of well-known nonprofits and individuals connected to McCrory and Hartford City Hall. Although it has been reported that federal investigators were inquiring about Connecticut’s cannabis licensing practices, according to the Social Equity Council, they have yet to receive any federal subpoenas or requests for information.
According to campaign finance data from the State Elections Enforcement Commission, Cicero donated $250 toward McCrory’s 2020 campaign, listing her employer as SHEBA. Hartford attorney and cannabis entrepreneur Kevin T. Henry, also named in the federal subpoena, worked as McCrory’s deputy treasurer in 2018 and likewise donated to his campaign in 2020.
Subpoenas are merely court-ordered requests for information, and while they signal an ongoing investigation, no allegations or charges have been announced. McCrory and Cicero Hamlin have denied any wrongdoing in a previous interview with CT Insider.
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It’s amazing to me how these NGO’s can and are being used as giant money laundering schemes of my tax dollars. The entire Connecticut government is crooked!