Another Bay Area nonprofit's financial misdeeds raise eyebrows

Days ago, Annie Corbett, formerly the owner of SJ's Corbett Group Homes, Inc., was sentenced to prison for a laundry list of fiscal chicanery: $752,000 unpaid taxes. Org funds funneled to her personal checking account. Lying to bookkeepers that tax obligations had been taken care of. The Merc breaks down the nonprofit's disheartening—but not all that shocking—legal scandal.

The owner of a company operating South Bay foster homes was sentenced to one year in prison Wednesday for failing to pay taxes and embezzling as much as $2.5 million in funds intended for underprivileged children, according to federal authorities.

Redwood City resident Annie Corbett owned and operated Corbett Group Homes, Inc., which ran three foster-care homes in the San Jose area between 2011 and 2018, when the company ceased operations. Corbett was charged with wire fraud in October 2020 and plead guilty in September 2022.

In her plea agreement, Corbett admitted to knowingly failing to pay employment taxes, withholding W2’s from the Internal Revenue Service and deceiving bookkeepers into thinking the taxes had been paid. According to the the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, Corbett failed to pay more than $752,000 in employment taxes between 2014 and 2017.

Federal officials said Corbett diverted funds from local governments and charities — intended for use in the group homes — to personal bank accounts for her own use, including credit card payments, retail payments and vacation timeshares.

This article originally appeared in the Mercury News. Read the whole thing here.

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