California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. filed a lawsuit to close the Monterey County AIDS Project (MCAP) for its alleged illegal use of more than $2.8 million in HIV/AIDS funding, KCBA reports.

MCAP’s former officers and directors used $1.8 million in HIV/AIDS funds earmarked to provide housing for people living with HIV and another $1 million was misspent on personal expenses such as expensive restaurant meals and credit card and personal mortgage payments, Brown said.

According to the article, in 1999, MCAP listed assets of $2.1 million, which included $1.8 million granted from a local resident’s estate with the restriction that it be used for housing people living with HIV/AIDS. In 2007, only $205,000 was left. MCAP did in fact provide housing for HIV-positive people, but at a lower level than the records indicate.

Brown’s lawsuit names 16 former MCAP directors and officers who mismanaged the organization’s assets and seeks the return of those assets.

“The duty of these officers and directors was to protect the charity’s assets so the funds could be used for the support of very sick people,” Brown said. “Instead, they violated their trust and spent the money any way they wanted.”