An SFMTA employee and her partner have pleaded guilty to a $30,000-a-month Section 8 fraud scheme where they claimed they were caring for 17 children, but were not caring for any children whatsoever.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins put out a press release Thursday morning announcing that her office had gotten two guilty pleas on a Section 8 welfare fraud scheme that was pulled a total of $500,000, as the Chronicle reports. The two guilty pleas came from a domestic-partnered SF couple, 47-year-old Daisy Avalos, and 49-year-old Maggie Pasigan. But the circumstances of this fraud were well out of the ordinary.
“Ms. Pasigan and Ms. Avalos were receiving over $30,000 per month in childcare subsidies from a nonprofit contractor stewarding public dollars to childcare and early education services for alleged childcare they were providing,” the DA’s press release said, noting the two had claimed to be providing child care for 17 children. “Over months of surveillance, there was no evidence of child drop-offs, pick-ups, or other signs of children even though the women claimed to be providing care for as many as 17 children during the same period.”
Avalos is actually an SFMTA employee, per Jenkins's office, which is what set off the whole initial investigation. The SF Human Services Agency found Pasigan’s collection of benefits to be unusual, and found that she was the registered domestic partner of a city employee. That right there made her ineligible for any sort of benefits, let alone $30,000 a month’s worth.
The pair's next court date is April 22, 2025, at which point a preliminary hearing will be set.
The HSA asks that if you know of anyone engaged in benefits fraud, to contact their Welfare Fraud Hotline at (415) 557-5771.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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