LAUSD employee faces felony charges for receiving $3 million in alleged contract scheme
A Los Angeles Unified School District information technology employee faces felony charges for getting more than $3 million in kickbacks after allegedly awarding $22 million in district contracts to a co-conspiring technology vendor.
Hong "Grace" Peng, 54, is charged with one felony count each of money laundering and having a financial interest in a contract or purchase made in an official capacity.
Between 2018 and 2022, Peng, who served as an LAUSD technical project manager, is accused of illegally participating in the awarding of contracts, primarily for the district's My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS), to the company Innive.
The owner of Innive, Gautham Sampath of Texas, is charged with one felony count each of money laundering, having a financial interest in a contract or purchase made in an official capacity, and aiding and abetting a government official.
Sampath, 54, is accused of routing and laundering over $3 million back to Peng after receiving the $22 million in contracts.
"This vendor, working with an LAUSD project manager, allegedly carried out a multi-year, multi-contract pay-to-play arrangement that siphoned millions of dollars from our schools," Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said.
Peng resigned from the district after the investigation heated up in late 2022. Sampath and his company Innive currently have government contracts throughout California and across the country.
If convicted as charged, each defendant faces up to seven years in county jail.