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SAN FRANCISCO — <\/span>The former CEO of a San Francisco homeless services charity will be arraigned Tuesday on nine felony charges after prosecutors said she stole more than $1.2 million in public funds meant to keep people off the streets.<\/p>\n Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, raided the accounts of the United Council for Human Services while she had \u201cnear-exclusive financial control” over the nonprofit serving homeless and low-income people, according to a statement Monday from the district attorney’s office. <\/p>\n \u201cProsecutors 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,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n She faces charges including misappropriation of public funds, grand theft and filing false California tax returns. Her arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. <\/p>\n Messages were sent to Westbrook and the United Council for Human Services seeking comment on the charges. An attorney for Westbrook could not be located. <\/p>\n The San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> reported that the charges are the latest in a long history of trouble for Westbrook and the United Council of Human Services. She was accused in 1997 of stealing thousands of dollars from a cash box at a parking lot owned by the San Francisco Port, her employer at the time. In 2015, regulators found unsanctioned blackjack tables in the back of a charity bingo hall that the nonprofit operated, the Chronicle reported.<\/p>\n In the court documents filed this month, Westbrook is accused of buying luxury vehicles and making purchases at high-end retailers like Louis Vuitton and Neiman Marcus with the nonprofit’s money. She led the organization, which ran a soup kitchen and collected millions in city contracts to shelter the homeless, for nearly two decades before her dismissal in 2023.<\/p>\n