The Truth About the St. HOPE Investigation

You may have seen or heard media reports about the St. HOPE investigation today. Here’s the real story.
 
After St. HOPE cooperated fully with a review, the federal agency that investigated allegations has completed its report. As the Bee noted today, the agency’s spokesperson said they “believe” there is “some truth” to the initial allegations.
 
As a result, they have turned over their to the U.S. Attorney’s office here in Sacramento. (The findings are confidential; we have not been provided a copy.)
 
The U.S. Attorney has two basic choices: to pursue it further – or drop the matter completely. There is no telling what the U.S. Attorney will do. But it should be noted, in most cases sent to the U.S. Attorney, nothing happens, according to lawyers familiar with the process.
 
To put this in context, there are more than 100 grant recipients of AmeriCorps funds that are undergoing similar investigations by that agency’s Inspector General. As you might expect, a federal bureaucracy has a litany of complex requirements for grant recipients, leading many recipients to be audited. This is the case with St. HOPE.
 
Our campaign issued a statement last night from Kevin: “Although we have not seen the report, we are confident that it will show only administrative mistakes that St. HOPE already has acknowledged. We look forward to the U.S. Attorney’s review.”