Athena Harven, 56, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud in a plea agreement filed Friday in federal court. 

Harven, of Vallejo, was the operations director of Together, United, Recommitted, Forever, a nonprofit known as TURF, which provided academic support and job training to students in Sunnydale and Visitacion Valley and received funding from San Francisco and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to her plea agreement, Harven wrote at least 102 checks to herself totaling at least $241,192.34 from April 2015 to December 2018.  Harven admitted to forging the signature of TURF’s executive director, indicating in many of the checks’ memo lines that the payments were for “payroll taxes.” 

“I spent the TURF funds I misappropriated on, among other things, groceries, gas, rent, utilities and clothing, and at restaurants, online, and on travel expenses, including at casinos in Las Vegas,” Harven said in her plea agreement. “I also used TURF funds to pay business expenses for my bakery — including to fund a trip I took to the SoFlo Cake & Candy Expo in Miami, Florida in 2017, and to pay business rent in August 2018.”

Harven also admitted to deceiving the nonprofit’s outside accountants after they asked for records to substantiate her claim that TURF had paid its payroll taxes, and she acknowledged intercepting and concealing “dozens of communications” from the state of California regarding the nonprofit’s unpaid payroll taxes.

When the nonprofit’s leadership confronted Harven with evidence of her fraud, she tried to blame the executive director, Kim Mitchell, claiming that he had instructed her to embezzle the funds and send them to him, according to the plea agreement. Mitchell was not available for comment Saturday morning.

In the wake of Harven’s fraud, the nonprofit was forced to permanently close.

Harven’s public defender did not respond to a request for comment. 

“Why do you have to write a story?” Harven replied to a request for comment. “It’s my personal business. It’s not news, it’s my life.”

Harven faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 and will be required to pay restitution of at least $241,000.