On Feb. 23, 2026, former United Council of Human Services CEO Gwendolyn Westbrook was criminally charged with nine felony counts related to the alleged misuse of public money.
The case centers on accusations that Westbrook misappropriated more than $1.2 million from the nonprofit’s accounts through undocumented cash withdrawals and self-issued payments. The charges follow a series of financial scandals involving San Francisco nonprofits in recent years.
According to SFist, Westbrook was fired in 2023 after reports surfaced alleging she had doubled her own salary and used organizational funds for personal expenses, including purchasing a Tesla, gifting vehicles to relatives, and vacationing abroad. The same lawsuit cited by SFist claimed Westbrook paid for family weddings and bought expensive jewelry while submitting vague financial statements describing large sums as “other expenses.” None of these allegations have been specifically proven or disproven.
A statement from District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’s office said, “According to court documents, Ms. Westbrook misappropriated more than $1.2 million in public funds from UCHS accounts to herself through a combination of undocumented cash withdrawals and self-issued payments, and that additional large sums withdrawn from UCHS accounts remain unaccounted for. Prosecutors allege that between 2019 and 2023, Ms. Westbrook engaged in unauthorized self-payments, improper cash withdrawals, and fraudulent reimbursement practices that diverted public funds for personal use,” according to Jenkins’s office.
Westbrook led the United Council of Human Services—originally known as Mother Brown’s Dining Room—for nearly two decades before her dismissal in 2023. She was booked into San Francisco County Jail on Friday but has since been released pending arraignment scheduled for Tuesday.
