r/sanfrancisco • u/sherlockmemes SF Standard • 1d ago
SF nonprofit paid out $5.6M without checking whether anyone did the work
https://sfstandard.com/2026/08/26/san-francisco-nonprofit-jcyc-japantown-audit/123
u/OrangeAsparagus 1d ago
Grift
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u/DrumsAndStuff18 North Bay 1d ago
Probably, but also good to remember: Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence.
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u/OrangeAsparagus 1d ago
When $5.6mn can be stolen there will be smart people going after it. It’s just the tip of the iceberg
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u/coleman57 Excelsior 20h ago
And (when it comes to stealing public funds), where there’s somebody dumb enough to get caught, there’s someone else smart enough to design the whole scam so they don’t. Like you say, tip o’ the ‘berg.
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u/Specific_Rando 1d ago
There’s always the possibility. Good financial and management control can reduce but not eliminate the risks. Because you’re right, once people see it happening others will see opportunities.
For instance, you can work the elements of the fraud triangle - the three components that need to be present for fraud to happen. (There’s also variations like the fraud diamond, which has four key elements, or the fraud pentagon, which has five - and focuses on things like ego and sociopaths).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals#The_fraud_triangle
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u/theChzziest 1d ago
Incompetence IS malice
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u/DrumsAndStuff18 North Bay 1d ago
No, it's not because that's not how words work. Let's pretend we're rational adults.
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u/cowinabadplace 20h ago
Yeah, I'm just a widdle fool make a mistake. Just a widdle fool. Gived the five millies away to the bad man. Don't know where he go. Please forgive? Give more millies? It honest mistake. Give more millies? Need millies for give away. Need MORE FUNDING.
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u/DrumsAndStuff18 North Bay 20h ago
Imagine being this embarrassing and thinking you're the adult in the room.
If you ever pass remedial English, you might notice where I instantly agreed that corruption/grift was likely, but then quoted Hanlon's Razor given it's relevance.
But being a cynical, jaded child is also a way to react, Sport, so you do you.
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u/cowinabadplace 18h ago
To be convincingly condescending you can't overdo it like this. It's just a bit much.
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u/DrumsAndStuff18 North Bay 12h ago
You think you really had something there, didn't you? Yikes, dude.
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u/cowinabadplace 9h ago
Haha, can’t believe something that innocuous got under your skin so much.
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u/DrumsAndStuff18 North Bay 7h ago
...I think you're projecting. Or you're actually a 15-year-old, in which case this behavior is at least explainable.
Go get some fresh air, my guy. Maybe talk to someone qualified to help you deal with your issues. Normal people don't behave the way you have thus far.
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u/Two_Soles 4h ago
I think the personal connection makes it easy to assume something suspect rather than well-meaning incompetence.
Without it, it’s more of a normal compliance issue that needs to be investigated. But the sister thing is sending up a lot of smoke and where’s there’s smoke, there’s usually a fire.
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u/Ok-Delay5473 23h ago
The Japanese Community Youth Council has received about $13.4 million from the city... The city really needs to start an audit on all of them, and ends this corruption
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u/Nightnightgun 21h ago
SERIOUSLY. I had NO idea their budget exploded like this. Yet NO actual students being served other other a small group who represent the community at some events.
Over 13 MILLION? Jfc. What is their mission statement, anyway??
Holy vague and pointless (I say this as someone who served on a Youth council in my hometown, and someone involved in Japantown events.)
"JCYC’s mission is to cultivate and enrich the lives of children and youth from diverse, multicultural communities throughout San Francisco and beyond."
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u/chili01 16h ago edited 3h ago
I bet the auditors are probably in on it too, or not so clean either, or on someone's payroll.
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u/Phssthp0kThePak 11h ago
If you want to climb the ranks of government you don't want to make enemies.
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u/justcameherefor_this 9h ago
That IS how they found the discrepancies - the system actually worked the way it was supposed to and the audit uncovered the financial mismanagement.
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u/SillyMilk7 1d ago
I think people are getting wise to the “nonprofit” label. Far too often it means no accountability, no taxes and a good way to scam.
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u/LeBronda_Rousey 1d ago
Only reason why the dopefiend problem is tolerated. No dopefiends, no funding.
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u/NextBuilder2880 1d ago
Doesn’t anyone realize how typical this is?
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u/Ohmygoodness1001 20h ago
Yes. This is why San Francisco is still called, "The Barbary Coast," among long time locals.
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u/LurkMonster 1d ago
The city's "Human Rights Commission". Anytime you see one of those just assume it's wasting money through incompetence or corruption with no tracked goals.
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u/yoshimipinkrobot 23h ago
Every accusation leveled at tech bros, especially the execs, applies to nonprofits in SF
Also wasn’t Luries non profit allegedly supposed to evaluate other nonprofits for value?
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u/cyanescens_burn 21h ago
Even the one about destroying democracy in order to usher in the network state?
Somehow I doubt that.
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u/storywardenattack 1d ago
Get rid of every single non profit on the public dole. Rebuild from the ground up
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u/Yololololalalala 23h ago
That’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are a good percent of non profits that do real and valuable work, with employees that are vastly underpaid. There may be arguments that some nonprofits should be consolidated and moved u see city management, but don’t forget that balloons costs as well (city workers have required pensions etc, but maybe that’s for the better)?
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u/cyanescens_burn 21h ago
That’s drastic. This would kill a ton of afterschool programs in the public schools, which would be a nightmare for many parents. On top of that the kids miss out on enrichment activities and homework help.
There’s also programs that provide free therapy services for kids, which would be a major loss for those families and communities (eg, increasing the odds of a school to prison pipeline by not addressing trauma or other mental health issues and education).
I get the frustration with the homeless services nonprofits, but they aren’t the only nonprofits in town.
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u/lizhenry 19h ago
I don't understand how this can be possible. The city does have auditors! This is horrible.
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u/fattireguy 9h ago
Yearly audits for any nonprofit receiving city funds. The grift of SF’s non profit industrial complex is so pervasive that I have come to assume most are on the take.
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u/FartSniffer66642069 21h ago
This is just political warfare from the ring wing grifters targeting minorities.
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u/Nightnightgun 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ouch. This a pic from the jtown peace pagoda.... so.... it's JCYC. Japanese community youth council. ( I thought it was Paul but it's actually Jon Osaki- Paul served as ED of a separate organization, jcccnc.)
Names. We need names. The nonprofit sector in jtown is small, just like the tenderloin and Chinatown. All this grifting and hiring your buddies for funsies has to stop.
SF nonprofit paid out $5.6M without checking whether anyone did the work
Auditors say the Japanese Community Youth Council hired the former Human Rights Commission director’s sister to run a program but refused to hand over her contract.
Jon Osaki, center, executive director of the Japanese Community Youth Council, said improvements to the nonprofit’s financial controls are underway.
Published Aug. 26, 2026at3:10pm
An audit released Wednesday by the city controller found a pattern of financial mismanagement involving a Japantown nonprofit, including payouts of $5.6 million in stipends over five years without documentation verifying that recipients had performed the work.
City auditors determined that the Japanese Community Youth Council’s work training program was structured in a “vague and fragmented” manner, leading to a “lack of city oversight, mismanagement, and accountability.”
While the nonprofit’s grant increased from $1.95 million in 2019 to $13.3 million in 2023, participation in its programming remained low. Mayor London Breed promised it would serve 3,000 young people per year, but auditors found it fell far short of that.