The FBI's Sacramento division is investigating a former St. HOPE executive's allegations of obstruction of justice, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown confirmed Tuesday.

The news fuels the controversy that has followed Mayor Kevin Johnson since 2008, when his brainchild St. HOPE Academy first was investigated for misuse of public funds.

That investigation appeared to end in April when Brown's office announced a settlement with Johnson, St. HOPE and former executive director Dana Gonzalez.

The settlement, hotly contested by the office of the inspector general for the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, required the repayment of more than $400,000 in misused grants for AmeriCorps volunteers.

However, Rick Maya, who officially left his position as executive director with St. HOPE last week, alleged in an April resignation letter that a member of the charter schools' board deleted Johnson's e-mails during the federal investigation. Those claims, uncovered by a public records request by The Bee, caught the interest of Brown's office, who asked the FBI's Sacramento division to look into it.

"The FBI has, in fact, opened an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the alleged destruction of e-mails, and is working with criminal prosecutors in this office," Brown said in a statement to The Bee. "Beyond confirming the existence of an investigation, we are not at liberty to discuss the details of the investigation."

Johnson's office and an attorney who represented St. HOPE Academy during the AmeriCorps investigation both said they would cooperate fully with what they characterized as a "preliminary inquiry" by the FBI.

"We are … confident the inquiry will quickly confirm that nothing inappropriate occurred," said attorney Malcolm Segal.

Maya alleged in his resignation letter that on Aug. 22, while the academy was under federal subpoena in the AmeriCorps investigation, he notified the charter schools' board that board member Sam Oki had accessed St. HOPE's e-mail system and deleted some of Johnson's e-mails. Maya wrote that Oki acted at the request of an unnamed St. HOPE Academy board member.

Maya discovered the breach, he wrote, when his own e-mails also were deleted.

"We had to pay thousands of dollars to recover the information deleted from our e-mail system as a result of this highly inappropriate and potentially unlawful incursion into our e-mail system," Maya's letter said. "We are still unsure whether all of the deleted information has been recovered."

Maya has not returned repeated phone calls from The Bee.

Oki, the CFO of a local research and technology company, reiterated Tuesday that the allegations are untrue. Oki said he could not comment further.

"My understanding is that (the matter) is under investigation and it's inappropriate for me to make any comments," Oki said.

Johnson's mayoral spokesman, Steve Maviglio, previously said the incident involved an information technology person from St. HOPE working to separate Johnson's mayoral campaign and St. HOPE e-mails. Maviglio said e-mails deleted from one account were fully backed up by another.

News of the FBI investigation comes on the heels of the controversial firing of Gerald Walpin, who as inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service investigated the misuse of federal aid by Johnson and his nonprofit St. HOPE.

In a letter to Congress last Thursday, President Barack Obama said he had lost confidence in Walpin.

The timing created speculation about whether Johnson asked the Obama administration to fire the outspoken federal inspector general.

Speaking at his weekly news conference Tuesday morning, Johnson said the decision to remove Walpin was "100 percent within the purview of the (Obama) administration."

"Obviously, I was not consulted in that decision," Johnson said. The settlement "was resolved in full public disclosure, and I really don't have much more of a comment."

Other politicians have had plenty to say, namely Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista.

Call The Bee's Melody Gutierrez, (916) 326-5521.