Youth Policy Institute, Inc.
Outcome
Howard Dixon Slingerland, CEO of Youth Policy Institute Inc., was sentenced to six months in federal prison, ordered to pay $750,470 in restitution, fined $10,000, and required to perform 200 hours of community service for converting over $600,000 in federal grant funds for unauthorized uses including personal expenses, and filing false personal tax returns.
Details
Youth Policy Institute, Inc. — Federal Grant Fund Misappropriation and Personal Tax Fraud, Los Angeles (2015–2019)
Outcome: Howard Dixon Slingerland, 54, of Studio City, California, former President and CEO of Youth Policy Institute Inc. (YPI), was sentenced to six months in federal prison and six months of home confinement, ordered to pay $750,470 in restitution, fined $10,000, and required to perform 200 hours of community service, after pleading guilty to conversion and intentional misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal money, and subscribing to a false federal income tax return.
Youth Policy Institute, Inc. was a Hollywood-based nonprofit operating since 1996 that worked to address poverty in high-needs neighborhoods in Los Angeles, running programs in education, youth development, safety, job training, and health and wellness. YPI received substantial federal grant funding to support these programs.
Howard Slingerland served as President and CEO of YPI from 1996 until he was fired in September 2019. Over the period from January 2015 to February 2019, Slingerland systematically caused federal grant funds to be spent on purposes unauthorized under the grant programs. Documented unauthorized expenditures included: Slingerland's personal property tax bill exceeding $14,000; a Slingerland family dinner at an upscale New York City restaurant costing more than $6,000; private tutoring for a family member costing nearly $11,000; a home computer and software valued at nearly $2,000; and other personal expenses.
The most significant single act of misappropriation occurred in July 2019, when Slingerland caused approximately $401,561 in federal grant funds to be applied to an unauthorized payroll payment. He also caused approximately $201,466 in federal grant money to be used to pay off YPI's organizational credit card bill, a portion of which reflected personal charges. In total, Slingerland intentionally misapplied more than $600,000 in grant money.
Slingerland also underreported more than $100,000 in income on each of his individual federal income tax returns for tax years 2015 through 2018 — income that represented the financial benefit he received from the grant fund misappropriation.
The total restitution of $750,470 reflects the full scope of the misappropriation. The relatively light sentence of six months reflects the absence of direct cash embezzlement in the traditional sense, but the case remains a significant example of how a nonprofit CEO can exploit control over grant funds to benefit personally and evade accountability for years.
Primary Source: DOJ CDCA — Youth Policy Institute CEO Sentenced
How Crucible Prevents This
A grant expenditure pre-approval workflow requiring documentation that each expenditure is within the approved scope of the grant program would have blocked the unauthorized payroll payments, personal tax bill payments, and family expenses from being processed against federal grant funds. Board-level review of credit card statements with automated flagging of personal-category purchases (restaurants, personal property taxes, tutoring) against grant accounts would have surfaced these violations in real time. The CEO's failure to report grant diversion as income on personal returns would have been caught by a reconciliation of taxable benefits against W-2 reporting.
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