A Washington, D.C., Superior Court judge ordered the former executive director of a D.C.-based nonprofit organization to return more than $1 million in alleged misused funds.
The Office of the Attorney General sued the H Street Community Development Corporation last year, alleging that former Executive Director Kenneth Brewer illegally used nonprofit funds to pay his own annual bonuses.
Brewer served as executive director of HSCDC and its for-profit wing, the H Street Investment Corporation, for over a decade. The nonprofit organization focuses on housing access and economic opportunity for Washington residents, specifically along the H Street corridor.
In March 2024, HSCDC sued Brewer for abusing his position of authority and misappropriating nonprofit funds, followed by a separate complaint from the attorney general’s office in 2025.
“Particularly at a time when District residents are facing serious financial challenges, my office will not allow nonprofit executives to exploit their positions of power to line their own pockets with charitable funds,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a news release. “Through this judgment, $1.255 million in misappropriated funds will go towards affordable housing and local business development as donors originally intended.”
According to the suit, Brewer circumvented the nonprofit board, improperly transferring funds from the nonprofit organization to the for-profit subsidiary to fund bonuses ranging from $150,000 to $350,000 per year. He also allegedly funded bonuses through the sale of his nonprofit’s properties.
According to court filings, Brewer’s large bonuses were outside of the district’s nonprofit laws.
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They argued that there was no way Brewer’s bonuses could be said to further the purpose of the HSCDC to directly “‘facilitate and perpetuate the revitalization of the H Street Corridor and its surrounds.’”
The court ordered Brewer to return the over $1.25 million in unauthorized bonuses, creating a constructive trust over Brewer’s assets and allowing HSCDC to collect what it is owed in misappropriated funds.