Money laundering the next chapter in SF nonprofit scandals
San Francisco, like SJ, has lately seen the hazy curtain lifted on nonprofit/gov't interrelations. Most recently, according to a SF Standard investigation (and confirmed by US prosecutors), SF org Clean City Coalition is alleged to have engaged in highly illegal, dangerous money laundering behaviors. Yet SF's Dept of Public Works maintains that contracting Clean City was completely above board.
San Franciscans not long ago seemed to be on a path toward having a clean—or at least cleaner—city government, as authorities subpoenaed contractors suspected of participating in a corruption scandal that had bored deep into the halls of power. Soon afterward came a 2020 City Controller’s Office report naming nine contractors, including the nonprofit San Francisco Clean City Coalition, as donating money to an account accessible to public officials.
Those donations could give the appearance of pay-to-play, the report concluded. The description also closely resembled the method U.S. prosecutors separately described as facilitating bribes.
And then, this momentum dissipated. The city attorney who’d issued the subpoenas changed jobs. Some firms in the report were banned from doing work for the city; but others that were implicated weren’t. Among those that continued to receive public funds was Clean City, which has been paid millions of dollars for watering public trees.
Now, an investigation by The Standard has turned up calendar appointments, emails and letters that may tie Clean City to payments U.S. prosecutors have said were “consistent with a pattern of money laundering.
The records, which detail the actions of the nonprofit’s executive director, Gia Grant, are similar to the description of documents referenced in filings for court cases linked to Mohammed Nuru. He is the former public works director now serving a seven-year prison term for charges related to a scheme disguising bribes as charitable contributions. Nuru served as a member of Clean City’s board of directors in 2001 and 2002, and it was Nuru who signed some of the early city contracts giving the group its landscaping work, worth over $1.1 million.
Additional Clean City records obtained by The Standard bear a resemblance to improper transactions allegedly made by Walter Wong, a building contractor who pleaded guilty to charges related to what prosecutors called a stream of bribes paid to Nuru.
This article originally appeared in the San Francisco Standard. Read the whole thing here.
This article is part of an exclusive Opp Now series on hazy, shady, and all-out criminal relationships between local nonprofits/gov't:
Jonathan Fleming, founder and director of SVPAF, speaks to what's going on with SJ's nonprofit community.
Joel Kotin at Philanthropy Daily analyzes the worrisome dynamic of local left-wing nonprofits advocating for extremist policies while at the same time benefiting from taxpayer and ultra-rich funder largesse.
Nonprofit attorney Scott Hartley of Hartley Law clarifies the parameters that apply to nonprofits when it comes to political activity.
SFStandard.com reports on how nonprofits in San Francisco can leverage huge sums of taxpayer dollars for political activity while neglecting their core mission.
Planning Commissioner chair Pierluigi Oliverio offers a compromise in the ongoing dispute over whether local progressive nonprofits break regulations with their aggressive lobbying of City staff /politicians: treat all advocacy activity the same.
Josh Koehn explains in the SF Standard that many residents are urging for transparency in how NP partners address objectives and use taxpayer funds. However, local nonprofit lobbyists strongly request no additional stipulations be enforced—lest the paperwork adds up.
The HJTA's Susan Shelley untangles LA's recently-passed Measure ULA. Residents making high-value real estate transactions must fork over some big coin, but none of it will go to emergency shelters or transitional housing—just unaccountable nonprofits peddling the discredited Housing First mantra.
David Eisbach points out the consequences of COPA's underlying idea: that unhoused people must rely on larger entities to advance in life. Putting nonprofit orgs in a tremendous position of power over lower-income SJ residents/officials will compound conflict-of-interest problems.
Gov't misconduct expert Josh Koehn reports on a new lawsuit against SF nonprofit org the United Council of Human Services, which alleges that CEO Gwendolyn Westbrook has inappropriately used funds for personal benefit.
Local nonprofits act just like lobbyists (but retain their tax exempt status) and brazenly invite conflict of interest concerns. Joel Kotkin provides the backstory in Philanthropy Daily.
Local neighborhood coalition Families & Homes SJ wonders how it's okay that the city's Housing Director can sit on the board of a local housing nonprofit.
SF org Clean City Coalition is alleged to have engaged in highly illegal, dangerous money laundering behaviors.
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