A San Francisco nonprofit has been barred from receiving city funding after its leaders were caught defrauding taxpayers out of more than $100,000. City Attorney David Chiu swung the hammer down on Drew Jenkins, Susan Murphy and J&J Community Resource Center, initiating debarment proceedings and serving up an immediate suspension, preventing them from getting their hands on contracts or grants, according to a statement obtained by the City Attorney's Office.
"Drew Jenkins carried out an egregious and intentional scheme to defraud the City and its taxpayers," Chiu stated. J&J's crafty plot involved false invoicing, double-dipping on grant funding, and even billing the city for personal indulgences like alcohol, cigars, and motorcycle joyrides, the investigation, which was a tag-team effort between the City Attorney's Office and the Controller's Office, revealed.
The scheme saw Jenkins submit fake invoices and expenses for reimbursement, some of which purported to be for public good initiatives like the Dream Keeper's Initiative and COVID-19 outreach but were, in fact, for Jenkins' personal events or completely unrelated purchases. Susan Murphy, who was promoted to J&J's Chief Financial Officer, was complicit in the scam, green-lighting over 20 fabricated invoices that Jenkins passed along, the City's probe discovered.
This included an inflated invoice from a party equipment provider, altering a $312 bill to a whopping $762; Murphy had placed the original order herself, the report detailed. The proclamation of financial rectitude was echoed by Controller Ben Rosenfield, who suggested that "Contractors who willfully disregard regulations are a blight on public service and should not have the same opportunities as those who abide by the rules of fair conduct," according to the City Attorney's disclosure.
Jenkins finessed even more money by submitting the same expenses across different city departments. The audacity did not stop at bogus billing, as he went as far as seeking reimbursement for non-grant-related items. J&J's "Locked Tight" program, purportedly a violence prevention initiative, was cited for including ineligible costs like liquor store purchases on a college tour.
The protective shield of debarment proceedings has thus been charged into the fray, barring J&J and its operators from taking any further funds from the city's coffers for up to five years. Both Mercy Housing and FACES SF, former employers of Jenkins and Murphy, have been cooperating with the investigation and are not up for debarment. Jenkins and Murphy no longer hold their positions at these organizations. Meanwhile, the city's Whistleblower Program remains vigilant, aiming to safeguard the integrity of public service and stewardship entrusted to them by the denizens of San Francisco.
