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Jun 17, 2009 8:51 pm US/Pacific
Mayor Kevin Johnson Investigated By FBI
SACRAMENTO (AP) ―
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Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (File Photo)
The FBI is investigating allegations that an executive at a nonprofit founded by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson obstructed a federal inquiry into the group's spending practices.
The revelation comes two months after Johnson and his nonprofit, St. HOPE Academy, agreed to repay nearly $424,000 in federal grants to settle an investigation into whether the group misused federal money.
Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown said he asked the FBI's Sacramento division to determine whether e-mails written by Johnson were deleted during the earlier investigation.
Brown said his office learned last month that e-mails may have been destroyed. Those allegations were disclosed in an April resignation letter from the group's former executive director, which was obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
"The FBI has, in fact, opened an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the alleged destruction of e-mails, and is working with criminal prosecutors in this office," Brown said in a statement provided Wednesday to The Associated Press.
Brown said he would not discuss the details of the investigation.
In his resignation letter, Rick Maya said a member of the charter schools' board deleted Johnson's e-mails while the academy was under federal subpoena for misspending money it had received under the AmeriCorps program.
On Wednesday, Johnson said none of his e-mails had been lost, although he could not say if any of them had been deleted and then recovered.
Johnson said he would cooperate with the investigation but had not been contacted by the FBI or U.S. attorney's office.
Malcolm Segal, an attorney who represented St. HOPE Academy during the AmeriCorps investigation, told The Sacramento Bee that he was confident the inquiry would show "that nothing inappropriate occurred."
Maya, who left the nonprofit last week, said in his letter that academy board member Sam Oki accessed St. HOPE's e-mail system and deleted some of Johnson's e-mails. He said Oki acted at the request of an unnamed St. HOPE Academy board member.
Oki, the chief financial officer of a research and technology company, said the allegations are false.
"I'm glad that there is an investigation being conducted," he said late Wednesday in a telephone interview. "I hope that it is thorough and brought to a close quickly. I know that the outcome will show that the claims are untrue."
Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges in the AmeriCorps investigation. When the settlement was announced in April, Brown said prosecutors determined there was no fraud. Rather, they found a culture of "sloppiness" in St. HOPE's record-keeping.
Brown also criticized the federal inspector general, Gerald Walpin, for overstating information he had gathered, which prompted the criminal investigation.
The inspector general had said Johnson, a former All-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in political activities, run personal errands and even wash his car.
Walpin was fired last week by President Barack Obama, who said he had lost confidence in the inspector general and was removing him from the position.
Johnson, who is an Obama supporter, said he had nothing to do with the inspector general's removal.
"Obviously, I was not consulted in that decision," Johnson told reporters during his weekly news conference Tuesday. The settlement "was resolved in full public disclosure, and I really don't have much more of a comment."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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