Corey Bruins, former president of the now-defunct Ocean Beach Town Council who was ousted in January 2024 amid a scandal over missing funds, is facing a preliminary hearing Wednesday, May 21, in Superior Court in San Diego on nine felony charges, including grand theft and money laundering.
Bruins, 34, was arraigned March 28 and pleaded not guilty. He was ordered not to possess any “personal identifying information” about current board Jenny Brengelman, Shelly Parks and Stephanie Kane of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation, which succeeded the Town Council after the board decided last year to drop the Town Council name after nearly six decades because of the scandal.
The Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 2000 and acquired by the Town Council in November that year.
Parks, the OBCF president who succeeded Bruins, did not respond to a request for comment.
Bruins also is scheduled for a readiness hearing on Wednesday, May 7.
The charges were filed March 6 after a lengthy investigation by the San Diego Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit, which gained access to data previously unavailable to the board, according to the Community Foundation.
Bruins’ defense attorney, Earll Pott of San Diego-based law firm Rosing Pott & Strohbehn, did not respond to a request for comment.
The OB Rag reported this week that Bruins is alleged to have embezzled $134,471 from the Town Council and attempted to steal an additional $123,563 from the council’s bank s.
A declaration filed by police alleged that Bruins raided the Town Council’s PayPal and Venmo s and credit cards and used stolen identities to open other s and lines of credit linked to the Town Council, the Rag reported.
The allegations focus on Bruins’ actions between March 1, 2018, and Jan. 31, 2024.
Bruins is not in custody while awaiting his court hearings.
When the scandal came to public light in January 2024, the Town Council revealed that the organization had failed to file required forms with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service during Bruins’ tenure, first when he was treasurer beginning in 2017 and then when he was president starting in 2021. That led the IRS to revoke the Town Council’s tax-exempt 501(c)(4) nonprofit status as a social organization.
Bruins had became the sole authorized agent and signatory of the council’s primary bank s. An independent audit reported in preliminary findings in May 2024 that thousands of dollars were uned for in the various bank s and credit cards held by the Town Council, some of which had been charged off and sent to collections.
The scandal has led to turnover on the board and some public skepticism toward the Community Foundation’s assurances of transparency.
