LA Charges Ex-LAUSD Employee in $22M Contract Scheme

Los Angeles County prosecutors charged a former Los Angeles Unified School District employee and a Texas-based technology company owner on Thursday with felonies related to a scheme that allegedly diverted more than $22 million in public contracts to the company, with over $3 million laundered back to the employee. The case, spanning 2018 to 2022, involves Hong "Grace" Peng, 53, of Pasadena, California, and Gautham Sampath, 53, of Flower Mound, Texas.

Peng, who served as a technical project manager in the district's information technology department during that period, faces one felony count each of money laundering and having a financial interest in a contract made in an official capacity. Sampath, owner of Innive, faces similar charges, plus one count of aiding and abetting a public official in such a financial interest. Prosecutors allege Peng steered contracts, primarily for the district's My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS) that handles student records, enrollment, attendance, grades, and schedules, to Innive through approvals, recommendations, and change orders. Innive received over $39 million from the district between 2017 and 2023, according to the felony...