The former head of a San Francisco homeless charity has been charged with stealing money intended to help struggling locals avoid homelessness \u2014\u00a0to fund a \u201clavish\u201d lifestyle that included luxury cars and trunks full of jewelry. <\/p>\n
Gwendolyn Westbrook, who was CEO of United Council of Human Services, allegedly grifted more than $1.2 million in public funds \u2014 after the organization received tens of millions in government grants over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
Gwendolyn Westbrook allegedly skimmed more than $1.2 million intended to help the needy. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege the 71-year-old nonprofit boss skimmed funds through cash withdrawals, payments to herself and improper reimbursements for her personal use. <\/p>\n
She directly stole $91,000 from the organization and additional funds once held by the charity are \u201cunaccounted for,\u201d according to San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. <\/p>\n
\u201cGwendolyn Westbrook enriched herself and misappropriated millions of dollars in public funding meant to benefit the community,\u201d David Chiu, San Francisco city attorney who investigated Westbrook\u2019s activities, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Westbrook\u2019s nonprofit managed RV sites and shelters for homeless people, which were billed as \u201csupportive\u201d to help needy people get back on their feet. <\/p>\n
The United Council of Human Services won tens of millions in grants to provide services to homeless people. David G. McIntyre<\/p>\n
A prior lawsuit against United Council of Human Services alleged that Westbrook was \u201cliving a lifestyle inconsistent with her reported salary\u201d or $155,000 \u2014 all while ignoring prostitution and drug use inside her facilities. <\/p>\n
She allegedly bragged to staff that she\u2019d purchased a Tesla, a Jeep Renegade and an Infiniti SUV for herself and friends \u2014 and was known to drive around with a \u201ctrunk full of high-priced jewelry,\u201d according to the San Francisco Standard. <\/p>\n
San Francisco District Attorney charged Westbrook with nine felony charges. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Westbrook paid for family members\u2019 weddings, fertility treatments and other expenses, according to a legal complaint. <\/p>\n
Westbrook is charged with nine felony charges that include misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and filing false tax returns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former head of a San Francisco homeless charity has been charged with stealing money intended to help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[3130,1493,4182,5466,101,103,102,104,106,105,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-190772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-fraud","9":"tag-homelessness","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-nonprofits","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}