SAN FRANCISCO—An audit found that a top city tax official allegedly “abused her authority” to secure a $10 million contract for a firm in which a family friend worked, according to a June 23 statement from the controller’s office.
The San Francisco Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector was offering the contract to replace a collecting system that manages billions of dollars in business taxes. Former tax office Chief Assistant Treasurer Tajel Shah “bypassed ethics rules and city procurement policies” to steer the contract to the tech company Mechanical Orchard, according to a joint investigation by the Office of the Controller, city services auditor, and the city attorney.
Shah didn’t disclose in writing her friendship with Roque Versace, then-chief revenue officer of Mechanical Orchard, and Shah was rewarded by her adult niece being hired by Ratio PBC, a subcontractor of Mechanical Orchard, according to the audit report.
The deal “created an appearance of ‘pay-to-play’ that may have undermined public confidence in the integrity of city employees and city procurement processes,” the audit said.
A whistleblower filed a complaint with the allegations to the City’s Ethics Commission before late 2024, when the San Francisco Standard, a local news organization, obtained the documents.
The audit report referred to the Standard’s Sept. 25, 2025, article on the allegations.
Shah left her position on Nov. 21, 2025, following the joint investigation.
The probe didn’t involve any Ethics Commission officials, according to the methodology used in the audit report.
As deputy to the treasurer, Shah was overseeing investments, banking, cashiering, budget, solutions management, IT, and human resources, according to the tax office’s 2024-25 annual report.
“The instances in which Shah instructed [tax office] staff to act in ways that benefited Mechanical Orchard were so numerous, it appears that she intended to selectively assist the firm in violation of city law and policy,” the audit report said.
Shah is accused of bypassing a competitive process and paying Mechanical Orchard $65,000 to conduct the “discovery project.” She then allegedly gave Mechanical Orchard access to information unavailable to the other six bidders, altered the scoring method to improve Mechanical Orchard’s ranking, and added $1.7 million in costs to competing bidders to make Mechanical Orchard more competitive.
Mechanical Orchard withdrew from contract talks on Sept. 24, 2025, one day before the news broke about the allegations against Shah.
The Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector said it will cancel the existing request for proposal and restart the contract process.
In a conversation with the investigators, Shah said she did not feel the need to disclose her friendship with Versace because the treasurer and tax office senior managers had met Versace at her birthday party in 2019, according to the audit report.
The Epoch Times could not reach Shah for comment.
“Ms. Shah has done absolutely nothing wrong,” her legal representative, Fred Norton, wrote to the City Attorney and Office of the Controller, according to Bay City News Service.
Shah had no obligation to report her friendship with Versace, Norton said.
“At no time did she try to influence the process in favor of other bidders,” Norton wrote.
