A San Francisco charity director is in hot water after being caught using funding (some of it from taxpayers) to bankroll lavish parties and purchase luxurious gifts, facing over 30 felony charges.
Her arrest came after a months long investigation including 25 search warrants and dozens of witness interviews.
The Daily Caller Reports:
Kyra Worthy, former executive director of the now-defunct SF Safety Awareness For Everyone (SAFE), was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly taking $700,000 of donations and public money over six years to fund lavish parties, purchase gifts, and deposit into her personal bank account, according to a press release from the DA’s office. Worthy is now charged with 34 felonies for embezzlement, wage theft, and misappropriation of public money.
One large expense was an event titled “Candy Explosion,” which cost $100,000 in total expenses, including $20,000 for desserts, $19,000 for a petting zoo, face painting and bouncy houses, $20,000 for event planners and $7,000 for “mobile luxury restrooms,” according to the press release. Worthy also threw a holiday party for SF SAFE, for which she spent $6,000 on an event planner $50,000 on catering, with the event featuring champagne, an open bar and a prime rib carving station.
Worthy also spent over $350,000 of SF SAFE’s money on luxury gift boxes in 2022 and 2023, according to the press release. These expenses were made even as SF SAFE was hemorrhaging money and wasn’t paying employee’s taxes.
This is not the first homelessness nonprofit in California that has suffered alleged misuse of funds. Gwendolyn Westbrook, head of United Council of Human Services, was sued in 2023 for allegedly misusing public funds to line her own pockets, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Despite the nonprofit reporting that Westbrook didn’t report a salary in 2022, she still managed to buy a new Tesla, vacation to Aruba, and buy cars for her family and friends.
She also allagedly spent $350,000 on luxury gift boxes in 2022 and 2023, and stole over $100,000 for “personal use” while the organization was losing money left and right, and wasn’t paying employee taxes. In 2018, she reportedly paid her landlord $8,000 with cashier’s checks from the nonprofit, while telling SAFE’s accountants the checks were for “community events.”
SAFE was founded in 1976 as a project of the San Francisco Police Department, but thanks to Kyra Worthy’s embezzlement, the organization went defunct earlier this year and was left with zero assets despite receiving millions in both public and private financing.
San Francisco was once a world-class city, but far-left leadership have made it a hot-bed for homelessness, known for human defecation, tent cities and rampant drug use.
That’s a true Democrat