Calif. Health Charity Accused of Cheating State

The state inspector general of California has accused Mental Health Systems — a San Diego charity that treats drug and alcohol abuse — of improperly collecting roughly $800,000 from the California prison system by misreporting income and overstating expenses, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

State investigators claim in a report that the nonprofit organization wrongly billed taxpayers for $530,000 from 2001 to 2004, and inappropriately recorded the purchase of 22 vehicles, costing the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation about $258,000.

Officials from the group said they did nothing wrong and plan to appeal the state investigator’s findings. “We stand behind our billing practices and believe other providers followed similar guidelines,” William Eastwood, one of the organization’s founders, wrote in response to the newspaper’s questions.