Tag: charities

Woke San Francisco nonprofit boss charged with fraud made local library buy 1,500 copies of HER children’s book, netting her $100,000

A former California civil rights leader is accused of pocketing $100,000 by directing a library to buy thousands of her children’s books, amid allegations she siphoned funds meant for the black community. 

Sheryl Davis, former director of San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, was arrested Monday on allegations of a ‘pervasive pattern of self-dealing,’ with prosecutors accusing her of misappropriating thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds. 

She allegedly used her partner’s nonprofit as a ‘slush fund’ for lavish personal spending, including travel, VIP party tickets and even her son’s tuition at UCLA. 

On Tuesday, an affidavit revealed that thousands of dollars were personally used toward promoting her children’s book through questionable deals and high-profile, celebrity-studded events, according to The New York Post.

The once-respected activist allegedly arranged the sale of 1,500 copies of ‘Free to Sing’ to the San Francisco Public Library, her book about a young black girl’s passion for singing despite criticism.

Davis raked in $100,000 in 2024 from book sales through her publisher, Book Baby, under the deal, according to an economic disclosure filing.

From 2021 to 2024, the nonprofit spent upwards of $30,000 on hotels and singer Goapele’s performances at two events, including $5,000 for a 2023 book launch party for Davis. 

The city’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) also spent at least $6,000 on the firm Varner PR, along with other expenses, to further promote sales. 

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Missouri Nonprofit Leader Sentenced to 16 Years in $19.7M Child Meal Fraud

This week, U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig sentenced a former nonprofit executive who stole $19.7 million from a program meant to feed Missouri children to 16 years in prison and ordered her to repay the money.

Connie Bobo, 46, was executive director of New Heights Community Resource Center at the time, which accepted money to provide meals to low-income, school-age children after school and during the summer.

Bobo, 46, of St. Charles, Missouri, was convicted by a jury of three counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and two counts of obstruction of an official proceeding after a three-day trial in October. Bobo set out to defraud the state from the very outset of her participation in the state’s meal program for children, a sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman says. 

“Connie Bobo’s trial clearly showed that this was the largest public assistance and pandemic fraud in state history,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus. “Hungry children were turned away when Bobo’s distribution events ran out of food, all because she was spending public money on luxury goods, real estate and an extravagant vehicle.”

In 2018, she submitted fraudulent state program enrollment documents and created fake board members, fake trainings and fake bylaws designed to induce Missouri to provide her with meal money, the memo says. Bobo submitted hundreds of fraudulent meal reimbursement claims from 2019-2022 and spent millions of dollars in public meal funds on luxury goods, homes for relatives, a new home for herself, a $200,000 Mercedes-Benz G550 Wagon for a romantic partner and a $2.2 million commercial real estate investment, evidence and testimony showed.

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Five More Somalis Plead Guilty in $14.6 Million Minneapolis Feeding Our Future Fraud Case

Five additional defendants, all Somali, have pleaded guilty to wire fraud in one of the largest pandemic fraud cases in U.S. history, the Minneapolis Feeding Our Future scandal that stole hundreds of millions of dollars meant for hungry children during COVID.

Ikram Yusuf Mohamed, 42, her husband Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam, 46, her sister Aisha Hassan Hussein, 29, Sahra Sharif Osman, 43, and her mother Fadumo Mohamed Yusuf, 59, each entered guilty pleas this week, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The group ran fake food distribution sites under the Feeding Our Future nonprofit umbrella and submitted phony claims for hundreds of thousands to over a million meals that were never served.

They used fake attendance rosters, inflated invoices through a related company, and paid kickbacks to cover their tracks.

Prosecutors say the five stole and laundered a total of $14.6 million in federal Child Nutrition Program funds, money that was supposed to feed kids during COVID but instead funded personal luxuries like rent, furniture, vacations, dining out, and DoorDash orders.

Each defendant’s company received more than $1 million in taxpayer money.

  • Ikram Yusuf Mohamed opened multiple sites that pulled in over $6.9 million, hid her role by using family names, created Star Distribution LLC for fake invoices ($4.9 million direct and $1.4 million more), and demanded over $1.3 million in kickbacks.
  • Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam ran Inspiring Youth & Outreach LLC, falsely claimed over 1 million meals, received $1.5 million, and paid a $21,000 kickback.
  • Aisha Hassan Hussein ran United Youth of MPLS LLC, claimed 1.3 million meals, received $2.2 million, and paid a $166,000 kickback.
  • Sahra Sharif Osman ran Youth International Club LLC, claimed nearly 700,000 meals, received $1.4 million, and paid a $7,500 kickback.
  • Fadumo Mohamed Yusuf ran Active Mind’s Youth LLC, claimed over 500,000 meals, received $1 million, and paid a $38,500 kickback.

All five pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel.

Each faces up to 20 years in prison.

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LA awards $106M to nonprofit whose lawyers hinder city’s ability to clean up streets — and bill $1,025 an hour

Los Angeles just cut a whopping $106.6 million taxpayer check to a nonprofit law firm whose lawyers have spent years hindering the city’s ability to dismantle homeless camps and clean up city streets — with one attorney billing as much as $1,025 an hour for work tied to its activism.

The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) was awarded the largest share of an eye-popping $177 million tenant rights funding package approved at City Hall this week, despite opposition from the City Attorney.

Under the deal, Los Angeles will funnel $106,572,543.69 over the next three years to LAFLA for eviction defense services, even as attorneys connected to the organization have repeatedly filed lawsuits that blocked the city from enforcing municipal codes aimed at keeping sidewalks clear of encampments and neighborhoods safe.

But the money flowing to the group is far larger than that. City records show the Stay Housed LA eviction defense program, a city initiative administered by LAFLA through a network of partner organizations, had already grown to a maximum contract value of about $90.8 million through a series of amendments approved by the City Council.

Put together, the contracts push the pipeline of taxpayer funding tied to the nonprofit to about $197 million. That number jumps off the page when compared to the organization’s own finances.

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Gavin Newsom’s wife and her firm pocketed $3.7M from her ‘gender stereotypes’ charity, unearthed IRS filings reveal…days after her sanctimonious rant at the press

Jennifer Siebel Newsom stole the spotlight at her husband’s Planned Parenthood press conference last month when she scolded reporters for not asking enough about the ‘war on women’.

But now, financial filings obtained by the Daily Mail suggest the First Partner of California may have to answer some tough questions of her own. 

IRS documents from recent years show Gavin Newsom‘s wife has been paying herself and her company, Girls Club LLC, up to a third of her nonprofit’s entire income each year – pocketing over $3.7 million over the past decade. 

Siebel Newsom, 51, runs the Representation Project, a charity that fights against ‘intersectional gender stereotypes’ and ‘harmful gender norms’. 

The organization brings in between $1 million and $1.7 million a year in grants and donations, with roughly $300,000 of it going straight to her and her company in recent years, according to financial records. 

The most recent IRS filings up to March 2024 show Siebel Newsom, who’s also the beneficiary of a multi-million-dollar trust from her wealthy family, receives a $150,000 annual salary from the Representation Project, and her company took another $150,000 from the charity’s funds. 

Her unusually high compensation to her and her company has recently sparked criticism from charity watchdogs – with a Daily Mail analysis showing Siebel Newsom and her nonprofit colleagues earn more than 95% of charities of a similar size. 

‘As [Governor Newsom] continues his national rebrand tour, the fact that he and his wife put one third of their “charity” revenues into their own pockets will undoubtedly raise red flags in the eyes of middle class Americans,’ Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the conservative transparency nonprofit Americans for Public Trust, told the Daily Mail, referencing the $300,000 paid to Siebel Newsom and her firm.

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DOJ-Released Picture Shows Disgraced Former Prince Andrew With Trafficking Victim in His Lap, as His Daughter Eugenie Has To Resign From Charity Over Relentless Epstein Scandal

Another week, another ‘Randy Andy’ scandal.

By now, having lost all his British royal perks, titles, and honors, having been arrested, currently under investigation, one could imagine that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, exiled in a Sandringham farm, couldn’t care less if yet another compromising picture of him has been released by the US DOJ.

But, in fact, it’s the compounding effect this has on his investigation, and also the consequences being faced by his daughters.

The undated images, small and low resolution, are among the 180,000 photographs released by the DOJ under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

They’re more of a blur, these new photos, but they keep the spotlight on Andrew after a slew of compromising photos and documents destroyed whatever was left of his life.

In the meantime, people around Andrew are also suffering grave reputational damage.

His daughter, Princess Eugenie, had to resign from her role in an anti-slavery charity, as the relentless fallout from the Epstein documents continues.

Page Six reported:

“[She] served for seven years as a patron of Anti-Slavery International.

On Sunday, the princess, 35, stepped away from her role at the world’s oldest human rights organization, the Observer reported.

The charity said in a statement to the outlet, ‘After seven years, our patronage from HRH Princess Eugenie of York has come to an end. We thank the Princess very much for her support for Anti-Slavery International. We hope that she continues to work to end slavery for good and deliver freedom for everyone’.”

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LA city council set to write $177 million in checks to activist nonprofits — including groups that sued the city

Los Angeles City Council members are poised to vote Tuesday on roughly $177 million in fast-tracked contracts, funneling taxpayer cash to a tight circle of powerful tenant-advocacy nonprofits — including groups that have repeatedly sued the city.

The package, championed by lefty mayoral hopeful Councilmember Nithya Raman, would lock in three-year deals financed largely by Measure ULA’s mansion-tax revenue. The money will primarily be used to run tenant eviction defense and homelessness-prevention programs.

Earlier this month, Raman’s Housing and Homelessness Committee signed off on the plan, clearing the way for final council approval of contracts with four dominant players in LA’s tenant-advocacy ecosystem: the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), Liberty Hill Foundation and the Southern California Housing Rights Center.

Together, the organizations form the backbone of the city’s “Stay Housed LA” network — a powerful alliance that provides legal defense, rental assistance and tenant organizing across Los Angeles while wielding significant influence at City Hall.

The same groups are also widely known for their aggressive street activism, organizing protests, demonstrations and rent strikes, and for filing high-profile lawsuits against the city over homelessness sweeps, policing and housing policies.

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The Bigger Problem that the Tim Walz NGO Scandal Has Exposed 

The Minnesota nonprofit fraud scandal, now expected to cost taxpayers more than $9 billion, is being dismissed by many as an isolated failure. However, this is far from the case, and writing it off as such would be a colossal mistake.

What it actually revealed is a broader problem in the Swamp—that institutions claiming to represent others often operate with little accountability and then quietly drift away from the very people who are footing the bill.

In Minnesota, nonprofit organizations became the perfect vehicle for abuse—shielded from scrutiny, politically protected, and flush with public money. However, in Washington, trade associations operate in largely the same way. They collect millions in dues from American businesses while increasingly choosing to serve their own leadership’s personal and political interests instead of those of their dues-paying members.

Their members only care about being able to deliver good-paying jobs to their employees and securing a more favorable regulatory climate so they can deliver lower-priced goods for the American people; however, you’d never know that if you looked at the public policy priorities of their association leadership officials, who seem more interested in fitting in at woke radical leftist cocktail parties.

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, has repeatedly broken with Republicans by sharply criticizing Donald Trump, including after January 6, when he called Trump’s actions “mob rule,” urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, and faulted the administration’s handling of COVID-19. Despite that record, Timmons later congratulated Trump on his November 2024 victory and suggested they should “work together like we did before.” At the same time, Timmons praised and partnered with Joe Biden, backing the administration’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign and publicly supporting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. In 2022, he also donated to Adam Kinzinger’s leadership PAC just days after Kinzinger was censured by the Republican Party.

If a presidency was truly so dangerous five years ago that it was deemed incompatible with democracy itself, it is fair to ask how the same association leadership can now claim alignment and cooperation without any explanation, accountability, or evident change in approach. That kind of abrupt pivot invites skepticism from dues-paying manufacturers who expect their trade groups to be guided by member interests, not political positioning or reputational hedging.

The problem is compounded by a reliance on press releases in place of real relationships. Press releases don’t move policy—relationships do. Manufacturers don’t pay dues for moral posturing, elite signaling, or ceremonial access; they pay for results. When leadership spends years attacking an administration only to reverse course once the election is settled—substituting optics for engagement—it raises a fundamental question about who the organization is really serving.

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State Department Hones In On Left-Wing NGOs As Vectors Of Chinese Influence Operations

It appears the Trump administration is finally getting serious about dark money-funded NGOs that are sowing chaos on America’s city streets, with apparent links to foreign influence operations. More alarmingly, these same nonprofits appear to sit at the center of the protest industrial complex and are actively amplified and promoted by prominent members of the Democratic Party. This highly organized and well-funded protest machine has waged an endless decade-long color revolution-style operation of chaos against President Trump.

The New York Post reports the State Department has sent a report to Congress connecting the left-wing nonprofits Code Pink and the People’s Forum to Chinese propaganda influence operations, mostly because of their direct association with China-based Marxist Neville Roy Singham, who operates the so-called “Singham network” of nonprofits.

The Post wrote:

“Partisan hacks spent years peddling the phony Russia collusion hoax while turning a blind eye to the sprawling web of far-left activist organizations who push the agendas of the Chinese Communist Party,” Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers said in a statement provided to The Post.

“Organizations like Code Pink and the People’s Forum denigrate the United States, whitewash the violence of Marxist regimes, and run cover for China while enjoying an influx of cash from a donor network with connections to the Chinese Communist Party,” Rogers added.

“The State Department will pursue complete transparency for the donor and NGO networks that lobby for our adversaries and seek to weaken the resolve of the United States.”

And continued:

The report on “Countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference” alleges that China “spreads propaganda through influence campaigns run by nonprofit organizations like Code Pink, the People’s Forum and groups linked with the notorious Singham network.”

The so-called “Singham network” are nonprofits funded by tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, whose wife is a co-founder of Code Pink.

Singham, an American expat living in China, “works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide,” the New York Times reported in 2023.

“Chinese diplomats, state media, and pro-China influencers use social media, content-sharing agreements, and local partnerships to publish pro-CCP propaganda,” the report continues. “China invests in [public diplomacy], exchanges, reporting tours, and educational and cultural initiatives to boost its image.”

“The Department assesses that China, Iran, and Russia aggressively use state media, proxies, and digital platforms to spread propaganda and falsehoods, undermine U.S. credibility and policies, and expand their influence.”

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Leftist Group Gets Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to Help Illegal Aliens After Trump Order Bans It

The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is promoting his investigation of a leftist group that received massive amounts of taxpayer dollars from the Biden administration to help illegal immigrants while omitting that the Trump administration kept the cash flowing. In fact, a $200 million program that gives illegal alien minors free lawyers was briefly cancelled and quietly reinstated by the Trump administration within days, though there is no mention of the abrupt about face in the probe announced last week by Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, a former collegiate wrestling champion serving his tenth term in the House.

Shortly after President Trump issued an executive order, back in mid-February 2025, ensuring taxpayer resources are used to protect the interest of American citizens and not to incentivize or support illegal immigration, the $200 million allocation for migrant kids got axed. The money was going to the same leftwing nonprofit that Jordan’s committee is investigating, though the veteran lawmaker’s new audit only mentions that it is focusing on how the open borders group has spent hundreds of millions of dollars awarded under Biden-Harris. The target is the Acacia Center for Justice, a Washington D.C. nonprofit that partners with a national network of human rights defenders to provide legal defense to immigrants at risk of detention or deportation. “Acacia envisions a nation with a transformed immigration system that embodies freedom from detention, due process, and equal protection, where every person facing the prospect of exile and community separation has access to meaningful legal defense,” the group writes on its website, which assures its network of attorneys fight for all immigrants regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race or previous interaction with the criminal system.

Just a few days after suspending the $200 million annual program that funds the Acacia Center’s initiative to provide illegal alien minors with free legal assistance, the Trump administration quietly restored it with no further explanation. The center’s executive director, Shaina Aber, celebrated the speedy reinstatement of the government’s multi-million-dollar UAC defense program, saying in a press release that “it is unconscionable” that children who arrive in the U.S. unaccompanied by parents or legal guardians should be forced to represent themselves in immigration court. The hefty award is part of a billion-dollar commitment launched in 2022 by a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agency known as Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to legally represent underage migrants, known as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), who cross the border without a parent. Over 600,000 UAC have crossed illegally into the U.S. through Mexico since 2019 and Uncle Sam spends hundreds of millions of dollars to house, educate, feed, entertain and medically treat them. Under Trump’s America First policies—and his executive order banning the use of taxpayer resources to incentivize or support illegal immigration—that was supposed to change.

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