The head of a San Francisco city grant program, together with a former top city official, face corruption charges for an alleged four-year scheme to misappropriate tax dollars to line their own pockets, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Lanita Henriquez, 53, and Dwayne Jones, 56, both from Oakland, were the targets of the joint probe of the FBI and the San Francisco District Attorney's public integrity task force.
Prosecutors allege that Jones, who is the founder and president of RDJ Enterprises, allegedly provided checks both to Henriquez, the head of the city’s Community Challenge Grant program, and her family members totaling nearly $200,000.
Between 2016 and 2020, Henriquez allegedly signed off on 23 contracts with Jones’ firm and other entities she and her family had financial interests in, prosecutors say.
“The charges announced today reflect my office’s on-going commitment to hold public officials accountable when they seek to enrich themselves at the public’s expense,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement, adding that the grant funds were intended to benefit residents, “not to line the pockets of government officials.’’
The two defendants face one count of misappropriation of public funds, six counts of bribery and 23 conflict of interest-related counts. Neither could be reached for comment.
Jones was the subject of an NBC Bay Area investigation in 2020 that found his company netted millions of dollars consulting on a city program that he helped create.
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City records show Jones partnered with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in 2011 to craft the agency’s Community Benefits Program, which gave contractors and consultants bidding on public projects extra credit for donating time and money to schools or nonprofits.
But since the program’s inception, records show at least seven firms bidding on SFPUC jobs tapped Jones to help craft their community benefits proposals.
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Jones’s firm was also paid $7.1 million working as a community benefits consultant on five large public projects.
For much of the time, Jones also worked directly for the SFPUC under a $900,000 consulting contract inked in 2017, according to city records.
Critics contended Jones’ consulting work was a major conflict of interest.
In 2021, a scathing city audit found the program was “poorly designed” and at risk for potential abuse. Jones defended his role at the time, telling NBC Bay Area that his critics were jealous of his success. “There are haters in my neighborhood,” he said.
