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AllHere founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was later arrested in North Carolina and charged in New York with securities fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Authorities allege she misused nearly $10 million in investor funds to buy a mansion and finance a lavish wedding, rather than deliver the promised AI product.
Florida Connection: Debra Kerr’s $630,000 Commission
The Florida raid targeted Debra Kerr, a longtime education technology salesperson with documented ties to Carvalho dating back to his Miami-Dade tenure. Her son also worked at AllHere and reportedly pitched the LAUSD contract after Carvalho’s move to Los Angeles.
Court filings revealed Kerr claimed a $630,000 commission for securing the LAUSD deal—roughly 10% of the total contract. The bankruptcy trustee struggled to justify why 36% of AllHere’s debts were owed to a single individual.
Carvalho has denied any personal role in selecting AllHere, asserting the company won the contract through LAUSD’s standard competitive bidding process. He also promised a task force to investigate the fallout—though that task force never materialized.
A History of Questionable Deals in Miami
The AllHere scandal isn’t Carvalho’s first brush with controversy. In 2020, while leading Miami-Dade County Public Schools, he helped secure a $1.57 million donation from a company with a pending district contract. The funds flowed to a nonprofit Carvalho personally founded.
Miami-Dade’s inspector general cleared him of policy violations but warned the deal created “the appearance of impropriety.” The nonprofit returned the funds, which had been distributed to teachers as $100 gift cards.
Law enforcement sources now describe the federal probe as focused on Carvalho’s personal financial dealings rather than the district itself, spanning both California and Florida.
Defying Federal Agents Until the FBI Knocked
Carvalho had spent much of 2025 positioning himself as a defiant critic of federal enforcement. He instructed LAUSD police to block ICE agents at graduations, turned away DHS officials at elementary schools, and publicly declared campuses as “protected ground, period.” He even pledged to risk his job to defend undocumented students.
But federal agents operate differently. Court-authorized warrants leave no room for negotiation.
The LAUSD board responded swiftly. Carvalho was placed on paid leave, and Chief of School Operations Andres Chait was appointed interim superintendent. Carvalho earned $440,000 annually to run a district now facing an $877 million budget shortfall, a loss of 16,000 students, and a growing federal investigation across two states.
The superintendent who once told ICE agents they couldn’t enter his schools now discovered firsthand what happens when federal law enforcement comes with authority instead of a request: they don’t ask permission.
