This sounds a lot like what’s happening in Seattle. There was a recent controversy with the “Black Brilliance Project” (https://sccinsight.com/2021/03/08/black-brilliance-research-...) that seems to have been just blatant corruption that took advantage of the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement. A bit further back, the city has been giving away taxpayer owned property to favored nonprofits instead of selling them (https://durkan.seattle.gov/2020/11/mayor-durkan-applauds-cit...), and justifying it using vague progressive justifications. If you go back further there are examples of corruption in the city’s “homeless-industrial complex” (https://roominate.com/blog/2016/anatomy-of-a-swindle/).