SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced this week the arrest of Kyra Worthy, 49, of Richmond, the former executive director of the nonprofit SF SAFE, on 34 felony charges.
Worthy was arrested by SFDA’s Office District Attorney investigators.
The DA said the charges are “related to misappropriation of public money, submitting fraudulent invoices to a City department, theft from SF SAFE, wage theft from its employees and failing to pay withheld employee taxes, and writing checks with insufficient funds to defraud a bank,” with “Ms. Worthy accused of illegally misusing over $700,000 during her tenure with SF SAFE.”
The District Attorney’s office noted how “SF SAFE was a long-standing nonprofit that partnered with the San Francisco Police Department” and that “because of SF SAFE’s relationship with SFPD, SFPD asked the District Attorney’s Office to undertake this investigation.”
The prosecution noted, “During this investigation, District Attorney Investigators determined that at least some of the money allegedly stolen by Ms. Worthy was derived from a substantial donation to SF SAFE made by a person with a professional relationship with District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
“Accordingly, out of an abundance of caution and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, DA Jenkins recused herself from the investigation and potential prosecution of this matter in February of this year.”
According to the District Attorney’s Office, “the complaint alleges two counts of misappropriation of public money in that she received more than a half a million dollars from the City’s Office of Employment and Workforce Development (OEWD) pursuant to a contract and failed to pay it over to the contract’s subgrantees, Bay Area Community Resources, and the Calle 24 Latino District.
“Additionally, Ms. Worthy is charged in the complaint with four counts of submitting fraudulent invoices to OEWD relating to this contract.”
The DA office added, “Ms. Worthy committed one count of grand theft by embezzlement in that she unlawfully and fraudulently used more than $100,000 of SF SAFE funds for her use…Worthy committed one felony count of failing to pay withheld taxes and 24 felony counts of wage theft against employees of SF SAFE between September of 2023 and January of 2024.
“Finally, the complaint alleges that Ms. Worthy committed two counts of ‘check kiting’ in that she willfully, unlawfully, and with the intent to defraud, wrote checks on SF SAFE bank accounts knowing the account did not contain sufficient funds.”
In a statement, the District Attorney’s office described, “An affidavit filed with the Court in support of an arrest warrant described a pattern of activity over several years in which Ms. Worthy both stole and grossly misspent the nonprofit’s funds, culminating with a series of crimes in 2023 when SF SAFE was unable to meet its financial obligations.
“The affidavit states that when Ms. Worthy was hired at the beginning of 2018, SF SAFE had cash reserves (of over) three hundred thousand dollars” with “Ms. Worthy’s theft and mismanagement result(ing) in the 48-year-old charity having no assets and ceasing operations in January of 2024.”
The DA affidavit charges, “Ms. Worthy paid her landlord with three SF SAFE cashier’s checks totaling $8,000…spent more than $90,000 of SF SAFE funds on a home healthcare worker for her parents in North Carolina (and) stopped withholding and paying payroll taxes for 27 employees in September of 2023 through January 2024…(committing) wage theft totaling about $80,000.”
The prosecution added Worthy “spent all the money SF SAFE owed to the other organizations on SF SAFE expenses and never paid BACR and Calle 24 the City funds she was entrusted to hold for them.
“Ms. Worthy lavishly spent SF SAFE’s funds on parties, events, furniture, interior designers, and travel, even as SF SAFE was running out of money and she had stopped paying employees’ taxes…(spending) more than $350,000 of SF SAFE’s money on luxury gift boxes in 2022 and 2023.”
