City prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance, a prominent fundraiser for the city’s open spaces that admitted last week to misspending at least $3.8 million, the Chronicle has learned.
An investigator with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office contacted at least two people with ties to the Parks Alliance after the Chronicle began revealing the breadth of the organization’s financial crisis on April 28. The investigator is assigned to the office’s special prosecutions unit, which handles public integrity, corruption and other types of cases. The unit is part of the white-collar crime division.
One of those contacted by the office was Nicola Miner, a philanthropist whose family’s charity, the Baker Street Foundation, gave $3 million to the Parks Alliance to help develop Crane Cove Park in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The Parks Alliance admitted in an email to her foundation last week that it had improperly spent $3.8 million in restricted funds on its operating expenses, including about $1.9 million donated by Baker Street for Crane Cove…