Six current and former San Francisco Unified School District employees, are now being charged with embezzling about $15 million in grant money from the district. Those involve include Associate Superintendent Trish Bascom, former Senior Executive Directors Linda Sue Lovelace and Meyla Fatma Ruwin, Former Principal Administrative Analyst Lilian Lamorena Capuli, former Assistant Principal Michael M. Navales, and Senior Clerk Typist Bety Chuey Wong. They are expected to turn themselves in on Wednesday, where they will face George Gascon.
All face multiple felony grand theft and embezzlement counts for diverting federal and state grant money into hidden slush fund accounts. The scheme occurred during a period when the district faced a $114 million deficit, had to give layoff notices to teachers, and summer programs were being reduced. About $4.7 million of the grant money has been recovered. The San Francisco School Alliance has not returned any money, while the other two nonprofits have returned more than $4 million.
According to San Francisco prosecutors the money was illegally spent in the following ways:
$250,000 for personal use (100,000 returned to date)
$6.7 million spent on student programs
$4.7 million returned to the district from two nonprofits
$1.2 million in administration fees to nonprofits
$250,000 lost in the stock market by the SF School Alliance
$1.4 million in funds still held by the SF School Alliance
$470,000 in unauthorized salaries and benefits
$200,000 in computers and telephones for the district’s student services division
