The former CEO of Bay.org George Jacob resigned in May amidst reports of lavish spending, but he’s hitting back with a ferocious new lawsuit claiming staff tried to secretly sell shark blood to Disney, and wanted to release all the animals back into the ocean.
One of the strangest SF scandals of 2024 has been the chaos and upheaval at Fisherman's Wharf’s Aquarium of the Bay, and its parent nonprofit Bay.org. That scandal started seemingly as a snoozer, with nearly the entire nonprofit-side staff resigning en masse in early May over a dispute over peer academic review of research. But things got quite crazy a couple weeks later, when Bay.org CEO George Jacob resigned amidst ballooning accusations of extravagant spending, including hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury hotels, business-class travel, and a Stewart Copeland concert in Dubai while the aquarium was way behind on rent and payroll expenses.
By June, Jacob had retained former SF Supervisor Angela Alioto as his attorney (yes, that Angela Alioto). But the more significant news at that time may have been a Chronicle report that newly installed Bay.org board chairman Jon B. Fisher “said the situation has attracted the attention of a federal law enforcement agency.” Since then, there has been no news of the FBI or Department of Justice poking around, though we suppose this remains a possibility.
But on the Angela Alioto front, the Chronicle reports today that Alito has filed her lawsuit against Bay.org on Jacob’s behalf, claiming discrimination, fraud, and plenty more. And many of the accusations in the full 37-page lawsuit are just eye-popping: George claims that a staffer tried to secretly sell shark blood to Disney behind his back, that he was subjected to racist taunts form the board (though he also complains of staffers “unable to speak or communicate in English”), and a even a bombshell claim that the board president once threatened to release all of the aquarium’s animals back into the ocean.
We’ll get into all of those salacious claims, but first we should talk about the Bay.org’s financial issues, as those were reportedly the root of George’s ouster/resignation/firing. And George’s lawsuit says that the financial mismanagement was all on the board of directors’ side, not his.
“The BAY.org was financially hemorrhaging, but this was not made known to Plaintiff” when he was hired, the lawsuit claims. “In or about February 2017, Plaintiff Jacob immediately conducted a financial and technical audit and learned that the Aquarium had $5.7 million dollars in debt, impossible payment covenants, and a deferred maintenance estimate of $1.7 million dollars on infrastructure and equipment.”
We should note the Chronicle disputes these numbers, saying they have “audited financial statements” showing Bay.org was $3.8 million in the black when Jacob was hired, and with a $3.6 million operating profit during the 2017 period he described above.
And it seems like the lawsuit is referencing the Chronicle’s June 2024 reporting. The suit claims that board chair “Jon Fisher, Controller Teppei Tokura, and [director of executive operations) Vicki De Witt were quoted in the media alleging that Plaintiff Jacob was terminated for gross financial mismanagement; and they actively provided detailed prepared spreadsheets to various media outlets in support of his termination.”
Now to the crazier allegations. We noticed with interest this spring that Bay.org’s prior board chair was Ben Bleiman, owner of Tonic Nightlife Group, which operates Teeth and most recently Harrington's Bar & Grill. Bleiman left that position in late 2023, but at least keeping the lights on throughout the pandemic shutdowns. Yet Jacob alleges that in the dark days of the pandemic, Bleiman said he was going to release all of the fish and animals back into the ocean.
“In or about March/April 2020, Board Chair Ben Bleiman told the City that the Aquarium would have no choice but to release all the aquarium animals into the ocean,” the lawsuit claims. “US Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFW”) became aware of Bleiman’s statement to the City and notified Plaintiff. Alarmed, Plaintiff assured USFW that no animals would be released.”
The lawsuit also has it in for Bleiman’s replacement as board president Jon B. Fisher (no relation to Oakland/Las Vegas/Sacramento A’s owner John Fisher). The suit claims that Bay.org was forced to write press releases for Fisher's daughter, and her attempts to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for performing underwater tricks.
And there’s this whole tangent about alleged secret sales of shark blood to Disney. Jacobs alleges that a staffer sold the blood of the aquarium’s seven-gill sharks to Disney without his consent.
“The purported contract involved Bay.org providing samples of shark blood to Disney for research purposes, the lawsuit states, saying Jacobs “began an investigation into the matter.”
Jacobs also alleges Fisher made the racist comment, “I keep my promises, unlike some people from India!” and that Jacobs (who is of Indian descent) was “appalled at Fisher’s racist statement. But the lawsuit also says that the aforementioned controller Teppei Tokura had a “deficient command of the English language” and that vendors “complained they could not understand what Tokura was saying the majority of the time.”
While it was originally reported that Jacobs had resigned, he claims in the lawsuit he was fired wrongfully. And he’s suing for damages, claiming he suffered “consternation, anxiety, depression, loss of self-esteem and motivation, lack of confidence, crying spells, frustration, mental anguish, isolation, introvert, all due to the trauma he sustained.”
It’s one hell of a lawsuit, yet it may be all for naught. The Chronicle adds that “Jacob’s employment contract included an agreement to use an independent arbitrator to resolve disputes,” so this is likely to end up in arbitration.
Image: Cris I. via Yelp
