• Lateefah Simon, Kamala Harris’ protégé and the likely winner of the federal congressional seat representing the East Bay, has campaigned on defunding the police throughout her career.

• While president of the Akonadi Foundation, Simon funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) to support their efforts to defund the Oakland PD.

• But the Terror Project appears to have used the money to fund a get rich scheme, with the organization giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to their nonprofits and LLC run by board members and their friends and families.

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As the Democratic nominee, Lateefah Simon is poised to win the race for California’s 12th Congressional District, which stretches from Oakland to San Leandro, in the upcoming November election. The incumbent, Rep. Barbara Lee, is vying for Dianne Feinstein’s now-vacant Senate seat. If Simon wins Lee’s seat, she’ll represent over 750,000 people and control a congressional seat that’s traditionally been a stepping stone to significant influence over national politics.Simon’s party bonafides are unquestionable: she worked on re-entry programs — initiatives designed to support formerly incarcerated people returning to the the community — under then-SF District Attorney Kamala Harris, whom she describes as a “mentor,” co-chaired Gavin Newsom’s taskforce on police reform, and recently stewarded the charitable giving of ultra-rich Democratic donors like Patricia Quillin (Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings’ wife). As president of BART’s Board of Directors, Simon lobbied for decriminalizing fare evasion statewide and led the successful charge to defund transit police and invest in unarmed “community ambassadors,” after which violent crime on BART increased (though the move earned the organization an award for “innovations in public safety”).