San Francisco employees charged with bribery, misappropriation of public funds

SAN FRANCISCO - A former and a current San Francisco city employee face multiple felony charges for allegedly making official city contracts worth more than $1 million for their own financial gains, San Francisco prosecutors said.

Lanita Henriquez, director of San Francisco's Community Challenge Grant Program (CCG), and Rudolph Dwayne Jones, founder of his company RDJ Enterprises and a former city employee, were each charged with six counts of bribery and 23 counts of financial conflict of interest in a government contract. They were also charged with one count of misappropriating public money, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office said in a statement Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, Henriquez and Jones appropriated public money for their own use and others from July 2016 to July 2020. .

Between July 2016 and July 2020, Henriquez, as CCG director, made 23 contracts worth over $1.4 million between the City and County of San Francisco and entities controlled by Jones, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors further alleged that before and during the period of these contracts, Henriquez received nine checks amounting to $32,942 from entities controlled by Jones. Family members and close associates of the CCG director also received 48 additional checks totaling $156,821 from entities also controlled by Jones.

Henriquez was arrested Tuesday morning while a warrant issued for the arrest of Jones is still outstanding, prosecutors said. Investigators from the District Attorney's Office and the FBI have executed search warrants at multiple locations in San Francisco and Alameda counties over the charges.

Their arraignment and future court dates are yet to be scheduled. The investigation into their case is ongoing.