On Jan. 21, Gov. Ned Lamont openly called for Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford, to be removed from his leadership roles in the Connecticut General Assembly. The governor called on McCrory to “step back” after a state audit identified “potential fraud” within the Blue Hills Civic Associat ion, a nonprofit to which the senator had helped direct more than $15 million over the past five years. The audit showed that McCrory directed how the Blue Hills Civic Association spent the majority of that money, and he allegedly instructed the nonprofit’s leaders not to tell the state about $300,000 that had been stolen through a fraudulent wire transfer in 2024. The findings included in the audit are just the latest problem confronting McCrory. The longtime state lawmaker is also being investigated by the FBI and a federal grand jury. Here’s what you need to know about McCrory and the political scandal swirling around the state senator. Who is Sen. Douglas McCrory? McCrory, who represents parts of Hartford, Bloomfield and Windsor in the state Senate, has served in the General Assembly for more than two decades and is currently campaigning for another two-year term in the Senate, where he has held office since 2017. The district that McCrory represents includes some of the poorest ZIP codes in the state, particularly areas in the north end of Hartford, where the median household income is roughly $33,000 per year. Before being elected to the legislature in 2004, McCrory worked as a school teacher and a vice principal at the Capitol Region Education Council. As a lawmaker, McCrory holds significant sway at the Capitol. He’s the chairman of the legislature’s Education Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for drafting the state budget. He also sits on several state boards that are responsible for deciding how the state spends millions of dollars for distressed municipalities and on business development in minority communities. What is McCrory being investigated for? Last summer, news broke that McCrory was the subject of a federal criminal investigation. At that point, the FBI and a federal grand jury demanded the state and several local nonprofits turn over thousands of emails, documents and financial records related to McCrory. The information that the FBI was seeking suggests that federal agents and the U.S. Attorney’s office are investigating the relationship between McCrory and a number of nonprofits to which he directed millions of dollars in recent years. The list of nonprofits named in the federal subpoenas include the Blue Hills Civic Association, the Upper Albany Neighborhood Collaborative, the Prosperity Foundation, the Legacy Foundation, the Greater Hartford YMCA and a number of other groups serving the north end of Hartford. In particular, federal law enforcement officials were interested in obtaining information about McCrory and his relationship with Sonserae Cicero, the leader of several business and a nonprofit that operate under the name SHEBA. The subpoenas issued to the state specifically asked for any records detailing a “personal or non-professional relationship” between McCrory and Cicero, who netted millions of dollars in state contracts and grants in recent years. What prompted the audit of the Blue Hills Civic Association and what did the audit find? The state opened a forensic audit into the Blue Hills Civic Association in the spring of 2025, before the FBI investigation of McCrory became public knowledge. Officials at the state Department of Economic and Community Development hired a firm to comb through several years financial records at the Blue Hills Civic Association, after the nonprofit reported that $300,000 of state taxpayer money was stolen through a fraudulent wire transfer. That audit, which took more than seven months to complete, examined how Blue Hills spent $15 million in state earmarks and grants that McCrory directed to the nonprofit through his position in the state legislature. The audit uncovered evidence that showed McCrory personally instructed Blue Hills’ executive director to subgrant millions of dollar of that money to other nonprofits. And it showed that more than 10% of the money given to Blue Hills, roughly $1.7 million, eventually went to Cicero’s businesses and nonprofits. The auditors found shoddy record keeping at the Blue Hills Civic Association, which operated for more than 60 years before it was effectively shut down last year. The auditors also said that some of the consulting work that Cicero’s businesses were paid to perform at Blue Hills may not have been completed. “The disbursement activity between BHCA and SHEBA Consulting, as well as directly to Ms. Cicero, reveals a troubling pattern of financial mismanagement, potential fraud, and a complete breakdown of internal controls,” the auditors wrote. “Additional review and investigative work, including further examination of both BHCA and its subrecipients, may reveal further instances of fraud, waste, or abuse,” the audit added. What is the fallout? In the aftermath of the audit, Lamont, a Democrat, called on McCrory to “step back” from his leadership posts in the senate. But the power to revoke McCrory’s chairmanship and other privileges doesn’t rest with the governor. That power lies with Sen. Martin Looney, the Democratic leader of the Connecticut Senate. Looney told reporters last week that he saw no reason to remove McCrory from his leadership positions, since McCrory has not been directly accused of a crime. At the same time, McCrory issued a statement acknowledging the financial mismanagement that took place at Blue Hills and denying that he was engaged in any wrongdoing. The ongoing criminal investigation and the state audit of Blue Hills has been more damaging for the nonprofits that McCrory helped to direct money to, however. Blue Hills was effectively closed after the state froze any additional funding for the nonprofit. And the dozens of other nonprofits and service organizations that Blue Hills sub-granted money to in recent years are now going to be the subjects of additional auditing by the state. ...read more read less