Los Angeles Superintendent Praised by Gavin Newsom Placed on Leave Following FBI Raid
4th March 2026
Los Angeles schools were thrown into chaos after the FBI raided the home and office of embattled Superintendent Alberto Carvalho in connection with a widening investigation into a $6 million deal between the nation’s second-largest school system and an AI startup. Days later, the district’s board put him on paid administrative leave (he makes $440,000 a year).
According to federal officials, the agency executed a series of search warrants which included Carvalho’s home – during which they seized Carvalho’s work phone and other devices during Wednesday’s raid, according to district insiders. By Friday, the Board of Education voted unanimously to sideline him. Veteran administrator Andres Chait, the district’s chief of school operations, will step in as interim superintendent.
At the center of the FBI probe is a collapsed ed-tech startup called AllHere, which was given a $6 million LAUSD contract to build an artificial intelligence chatbot named “Ed,” pitched as a revolutionary tool to “democratize education.” Carvalho personally championed the project after arriving in Los Angeles in 2022, touting it at tech conferences as a game-changing way for students and parents to stay connected.
And of course, the bot was bullshit, and AllHere’s founder – Joanna Smith-Griffin, now faces federal fraud charges for allegedly inflating revenues and exaggerating the company’s client base. The criminal case remains unresolved as both sides discuss a possible deal, court records show.