Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho — who last month resigned after dramatic FBI raids of his home and offices — failed to report at least $107,000 he was paid in a lucrative side hustle, according to a shocking new report.
The embattled ex- leader of the nation’s second-largest district, who was drawing a salary in LA of $440,000, finally gave up his day job almost four months after he’d been placed on paid leave by the LAUSD Board of Education in a unanimous vote.
The disgraced educator resigned on June 21 — only after the LAUSD board threatened to dismiss him “for cause,” because he failed to report travel and baseball tickets given to him by a tech vendor, according to a confidential letter uncovered by the Los Angeles Times.
“It has been a great honor to serve you,” Carvalho wrote in his resignation letter, which did not explicitly mention the FBI raids. “Placing students first has always guided my work.”
Now, new allegations charge Carvalho with violating laws that may have required the leader of the $20.6 billion school district to disclose extra income.
The veteran schools boss, who previously led Miami’s public schools and was once named Superintendent of the Year, failed to report at least at least $107,000 he was paid for coaching the superintendent of Denver Public Schools, The Denver Post reports.
Carvalho drew the hefty sum beginning in mid-2022, for “executive coaching” services he provided to DPS superintendent Alex Marrero, first at a rate of $2,000 a month, then, starting the following year, at $3,000 a month.
In all, Carvalho charged the DPS at least $107,000 in invoices he submitted between November 2022 and January of this year, a period when Carvalho was also supposed to be leading LAUSD, according to contracts obtained by the news outlet.
Marrero “ended his formal coaching relationship” with Carvalho in February, DPS spokesman Bill Good told The Denver Post, after LAUSD put Carvalho on leave following the stunning FBI raids on his Palos Verdes home and district office.
Federal officials have been tight-lipped about the possible criminal charges the former superintendent may be facing but a source who’s familiar with the investigation told the Post that federal investigators are still conducting their probe.
Federal charges may be brought over nondisclosure of financial payments made to public officials such as Carvalho and they are most often overlap with other charges such as fraud, tax evasion or making false statements.
Federal agents in February executed search warrants at Carvalho’s San Pedro residence, LAUSD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles and a the Miami home of Debra Kerr, a former consultant with the tech firm AllHere who is tied to the investigation.
AllHere’s payment for a 2023 trip to the White House taken by Carvalho was flagged as an undisclosed financial benefit received by the former superintendent in the Board’s letter warning him of his potential termination for just cause, according to The Times.
The artificial-intelligence company developed a chatbot for the district that flatlined just weeks after its release.
The company’s young founder, Joanna Smith-Griffin, was charged with fraud in 2024, just months after she joined Carvalho for a series of public events to kick off her company’s $6 million AI chatbot deal with the district.
The LAUSD board on June 24 replaced Carvalho with the new superintendent Andres Chait, a longtime Los Angeles educator who served as the district’s provisional leader after Carvalho was placed on leave.
Through his attorneys, Carvalho has denied any wrongdoing. He was spotted in May on an incognito shopping trip at his local Vons supermarket with his wife, Maria.
Carvalho last week placed his Palos Verdes home up for sale, asking $1,899,000 for the 2,000-square-foot home that commands sweeping backyard views of the Pacific Ocean.