On March 27, 2026, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced felony charges in what he called the largest money laundering scheme in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) history. Former LAUSD technical project manager Hong “Grace” Peng and Texas-based Innive owner Gautham Sampath are accused of a 2018 to 2022 pay-to-play scheme.
For context, Peng allegedly used her position to steer over $22 million in contracts, primarily for the district’s My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS), to Innive. In exchange, Sampath allegedly laundered and routed more than $3 million in kickbacks to Peng through shell companies and intermediaries
Hochman began, “We have announced charges in the largest money laundering operation in LAUSD history. That’s the Los Angeles Unified School District’s history. The allegations are against two individuals. One of them is an IT and Information Technology employee of the LAUSD. Her name is Hong ‘Grace’ Peng, and what she did was engage in this money laundering scheme with an outside vendor. His name is Gotham Sampath, and his company is called Innive.”
He described how, despite claiming to have no conflict of interest, her private messages tell another story. “But two days later, Mr. Sampath, who’s one of the vendors who texted Miss Peng, and she says, he says, ‘delete all the WhatsApp chats that they have had. If anybody sees these texts about these internal things, it will be a problem,’ because what Miss Pang has been alleged to have done is give the internal blessings and information to Mr. Sampath.”
Explaining in more detail, the official added, “So his company wins, and his company, in turn, will pay her over $3 million in the ensuing four years. So later in that year, June of 2018, Mr. Sandpath texted Miss Peng. And says, ‘What are the other opportunities in LAUSD that we can exploit any other area?'”
Continuing to expose the sordid scheme, Hochman relayed, “And she responds, ‘you mean all the RFPs?’ Those are requests for proposals. And Sampath tests back, ‘yes, bench and bank paying?’ Ms Peng ‘Responds, yeah, a lot of them.’ And he responds, ‘We need to reach our goal of 25 from LAUSD itself.’ Now, about a month later, she texted him back, and she says, ‘You’re so lucky. I’m on the selection committee. Five companies responded.’
Concluding the explosive evidence, he stated, “Sampath responds, ‘Well, what did you say?’ and I was lucky, Peng responds, ‘Because you have me lol on the selection committee. It’s cone of silence. I broke all law for you already. Lol.'”
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Breaking the story, a viral post noted, “LA County DA Nathan Hochman announces charges in “the largest money laundering operation in Los Angeles Unified school District’s history”🚨 2 individuals stole roughly $22 MILLION, with over $3 million dollars given as kick backs to a LAUSD employee though shell companies.”
The user added, “The employees are- Hong “Grace” Peng (former LAUSD technical project manager) – Gautam Sampath (owner of the Texas-based company Innive). Between 2018 and 2022, Peng used her position to illegally help award more than $22 million in contracts to Innive,” adding “In exchange, Sampath is accused of routing and laundering over $3 million back to Peng through various intermediaries and shell companies.”
Featured image from embedded video