Tag: charities

Alabama AG Announces Civil Investigation into Southern Poverty Law Center Alleging Deceptive Fundraising Practices Under State’s Consumer Protection Statutes

In April, the Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on 11 counts, including wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.

The SPLC was indicted for secretly funneling more than $3 million in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups, the DOJ said.

A grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment against the SPLC.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the grand jury indicted the SPLC on 6 counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Now, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has announced a civil investigation into the organization, alleging deceptive fundraising practices under the State’s consumer protection statutes.

Keep reading

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Name Pops Up MULTIPLE Times in $250 MILLION Feeding Our Future Fraud Emails – Including One Titled “Ilhan’s Office” – But the Radical Squad Member REFUSES to Turn Over Documents to Minnesota Investigators

Fresh court exhibits from the massive $250 MILLION Feeding Our Future fraud trial have revealed that Rep. Ilhan Omar’s name appeared MULTIPLE times in email chains and text messages with convicted fraudster Aimee Bock, the mastermind behind the largest COVID-era fraud scheme targeting children’s nutrition programs.

According to trial exhibits unsealed in Aimee Bock’s case, Omar’s office was directly involved in communications with the fraud ring.

According to resurfaced trial exhibits from Bock’s 2025 conviction on wire fraud, conspiracy, and bribery charges, one email chain between Bock and Omar’s office was literally titled “Ilhan’s Office.”

Another email from February 2021 carried the subject line “help with USDA food program,” right in the middle of the massive scam that funneled hundreds of millions in federal pandemic funds to fake meal sites, luxury cars, jewelry, and overseas real estate, according to the New York Post.

Text messages recovered during a raid of Bock’s Minnesota home also show direct communication between the fraudster and Omar’s congressional staff.

More from the Post:

A few days after Bock’s email to Omar, on Feb. 28, Bock exchanged messages with Abdikerm Eidleh, a Feeding Our Future employee who fled the country after he was indicted in 2022. The subject line of their emails was “Ilhan’s Office,” according to the court documents.

While the list of exhibits is public, the contents have been sealed by the court.

The exhibits also include a text message string between Bock and Omar, which was uncovered during a raid of Bock’s Minnesota house, records show.

Bock has been leaking documents from behind bars through her college-age son ahead of her sentencing to try to shift some of the blame to elected officials, Minnesota federal prosecutors have alleged.

It’s unclear if those leaked documents were related to Omar.

Keep reading

Minnesota nonprofit accused of siphoning $6.5M to fund Vegas trips, luxury cars, private liquor store

The head of a Minnesota nonprofit allegedly siphoned off more than $6 million in taxpayer funds to treat himself to such lavish goodies as trips to Vegas, luxury rides and shopping sprees at Harley Davidson.

Trahern Pollard, founder and now-former director of the nonprofit We Push For Peace, was supposed to be leading his organization in providing “conflict de-escalation’’ work after George Floyd’s murder — an effort fueled by millions of dollars in government contracts, according to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a new lawsuit against the group.

Instead, Pollard diverted more than $6 million of the dough to fund a well-heeled lifestyle for himself — not to mention to pay off child support, settle a tax bill with the IRS and subsidize his private businesses, including a liquor store and a used-car dealership, authorities said.

Pollard’s fellow former director, Jaclyn McGuigan, also was nailed in the alleged scheme.

Keep reading

Reckoning: Islamic Group with Terror Ties Set to Be Investigated by GOP

The Council on American‑Islamic Relations is coming under attack as House Republicans examine the extent to which it is trying to subvert American law with Sharia law.

A House Judiciary subcommittee has scheduled a hearing to examine how CAIR and its fellow travelers are pushing anti-Western ideals, according to the Daily Signal.

“Sharia law has no place in the United States, and these hearings are about exposing it, defending the rule of law, and protecting the values that make America strong,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said.

Roy chairs the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, which will hold a hearing titled, “Sharia‑Free America: Why Political Islam and Sharia Law Are Incompatible With the U.S. Constitution, Part II.”

The hearing announcement said the hearing will focus on “the role organizations like CAIR play in promoting and funding” actions contrary to U.S. law.

“In our first hearing this February, we exposed how Sharia law and Islam are being pushed,” Roy said.

“This follow‑up hearing will highlight new incidents unfolding throughout our nation and examine the role organizations like CAIR play in promoting and funding these efforts. Islam is incompatible with Western civilization,” he said.

Roy, who has accused CAIR of having a “30‑year history replete with associating with terrorist groups and individuals who want to undermine the security and values of the U.S. and its allies,” has proposed legislation to make the group a Specially Designated Terrorist Organization.

CAIR, he has said, “has harbored ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other extremist groups while operating under the guise of a nonprofit and reaping the benefits of 501(c)(3) tax status.”

In April, Roy was the lead author of a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking him to suspend and debar CAIR.

“CAIR’s longstanding ties to terrorist organizations, including Hamas — a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) — combined with documented financial mismanagement and misuse of federal grant funds administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), pose a grave risk to national security and render CAIR unfit to receive taxpayer dollars,” the letter said, noting that $15 million federal money sub-granted by California has gone to CAIR since 2022.

Keep reading

Man Pleads Guilty to Firebombing Nonprofit with Napalm Device – ALSO Tried to Hand Hezbollah a Hit List of 35,000 Israelis Saying “Start the Hunt”

A man allegedly linked to “white supremacist movements” has now pleaded guilty to a disturbing series of crimes, including firebombing a nonprofit using a napalm-style device and attempting to assist the foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah.

28-year-old Regan Darby Prater of Tullahoma, Tennessee, stood before a federal judge in Knoxville and copped to one count of arson and one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

According to the Department of Justice, Prater admitted he drove from his home to the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.

According to the press release:

“Regan Darby Prater, 28, currently of Tullahoma, Tennessee, entered a guilty plea to one count of arson and one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Prater pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. Sentencing has been set before U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan for Sept. 9, in Knoxville.

Prater faces up to 20 years in federal prison, along with related fines, restitution, and a term of supervised release to be served after he is released from custody. As part of his agreement, Prater waived indictment by a Federal Grand Jury and agreed to plead guilty to the aforementioned charges.

Court documents establish that Prater used a so-called “sparkler bomb,” i.e., a napalm-based incendiary device ignited by a common sparkler, to destroy facilities maintained by the Highlander Center, a school for grassroots leaders and social movements in New Market, Tennessee. As part of his guilty plea, Prater admitted that he drove from his home in Tullahoma to the Highlander Center, ignited the sparkler bomb, and destroyed a building, ultimately causing over $1.2 million in damage.

Before he detonated the bomb, Prater spray-painted the symbol of the Iron Guard, a 1930s-era paramilitary arm of the Romanian Nazi Party, in the Highlander Center parking lot. This same symbol was engraved on the rifle used in the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, just two weeks prior to the arson. Prater acknowledged that he committed the arson at the Highland Center due to his white-supremacist ideology and as a response to the Highlander Center’s faith-based educational priorities and its association with the Civil Rights Movement.

Separately, Prater also admitted that, in 2019, he attempted to provide material support to Hizballah, also known as “Hezbollah,” which the United States has recognized as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. Specifically, Prater obtained a document purporting to contain personally identifiable information of over 35,000 individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel. He then provided that document to an individual he believed to be associated with Hizballah, stating, among other things: “Start the hunt.””

Keep reading

Woke San Francisco nonprofit boss charged with fraud made local library buy 1,500 copies of HER children’s book, netting her $100,000

A former California civil rights leader is accused of pocketing $100,000 by directing a library to buy thousands of her children’s books, amid allegations she siphoned funds meant for the black community. 

Sheryl Davis, former director of San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, was arrested Monday on allegations of a ‘pervasive pattern of self-dealing,’ with prosecutors accusing her of misappropriating thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds. 

She allegedly used her partner’s nonprofit as a ‘slush fund’ for lavish personal spending, including travel, VIP party tickets and even her son’s tuition at UCLA. 

On Tuesday, an affidavit revealed that thousands of dollars were personally used toward promoting her children’s book through questionable deals and high-profile, celebrity-studded events, according to The New York Post.

The once-respected activist allegedly arranged the sale of 1,500 copies of ‘Free to Sing’ to the San Francisco Public Library, her book about a young black girl’s passion for singing despite criticism.

Davis raked in $100,000 in 2024 from book sales through her publisher, Book Baby, under the deal, according to an economic disclosure filing.

From 2021 to 2024, the nonprofit spent upwards of $30,000 on hotels and singer Goapele’s performances at two events, including $5,000 for a 2023 book launch party for Davis. 

The city’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) also spent at least $6,000 on the firm Varner PR, along with other expenses, to further promote sales. 

Keep reading

Missouri Nonprofit Leader Sentenced to 16 Years in $19.7M Child Meal Fraud

This week, U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig sentenced a former nonprofit executive who stole $19.7 million from a program meant to feed Missouri children to 16 years in prison and ordered her to repay the money.

Connie Bobo, 46, was executive director of New Heights Community Resource Center at the time, which accepted money to provide meals to low-income, school-age children after school and during the summer.

Bobo, 46, of St. Charles, Missouri, was convicted by a jury of three counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and two counts of obstruction of an official proceeding after a three-day trial in October. Bobo set out to defraud the state from the very outset of her participation in the state’s meal program for children, a sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman says. 

“Connie Bobo’s trial clearly showed that this was the largest public assistance and pandemic fraud in state history,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus. “Hungry children were turned away when Bobo’s distribution events ran out of food, all because she was spending public money on luxury goods, real estate and an extravagant vehicle.”

In 2018, she submitted fraudulent state program enrollment documents and created fake board members, fake trainings and fake bylaws designed to induce Missouri to provide her with meal money, the memo says. Bobo submitted hundreds of fraudulent meal reimbursement claims from 2019-2022 and spent millions of dollars in public meal funds on luxury goods, homes for relatives, a new home for herself, a $200,000 Mercedes-Benz G550 Wagon for a romantic partner and a $2.2 million commercial real estate investment, evidence and testimony showed.

Keep reading

Five More Somalis Plead Guilty in $14.6 Million Minneapolis Feeding Our Future Fraud Case

Five additional defendants, all Somali, have pleaded guilty to wire fraud in one of the largest pandemic fraud cases in U.S. history, the Minneapolis Feeding Our Future scandal that stole hundreds of millions of dollars meant for hungry children during COVID.

Ikram Yusuf Mohamed, 42, her husband Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam, 46, her sister Aisha Hassan Hussein, 29, Sahra Sharif Osman, 43, and her mother Fadumo Mohamed Yusuf, 59, each entered guilty pleas this week, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The group ran fake food distribution sites under the Feeding Our Future nonprofit umbrella and submitted phony claims for hundreds of thousands to over a million meals that were never served.

They used fake attendance rosters, inflated invoices through a related company, and paid kickbacks to cover their tracks.

Prosecutors say the five stole and laundered a total of $14.6 million in federal Child Nutrition Program funds, money that was supposed to feed kids during COVID but instead funded personal luxuries like rent, furniture, vacations, dining out, and DoorDash orders.

Each defendant’s company received more than $1 million in taxpayer money.

  • Ikram Yusuf Mohamed opened multiple sites that pulled in over $6.9 million, hid her role by using family names, created Star Distribution LLC for fake invoices ($4.9 million direct and $1.4 million more), and demanded over $1.3 million in kickbacks.
  • Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam ran Inspiring Youth & Outreach LLC, falsely claimed over 1 million meals, received $1.5 million, and paid a $21,000 kickback.
  • Aisha Hassan Hussein ran United Youth of MPLS LLC, claimed 1.3 million meals, received $2.2 million, and paid a $166,000 kickback.
  • Sahra Sharif Osman ran Youth International Club LLC, claimed nearly 700,000 meals, received $1.4 million, and paid a $7,500 kickback.
  • Fadumo Mohamed Yusuf ran Active Mind’s Youth LLC, claimed over 500,000 meals, received $1 million, and paid a $38,500 kickback.

All five pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel.

Each faces up to 20 years in prison.

Keep reading

LA awards $106M to nonprofit whose lawyers hinder city’s ability to clean up streets — and bill $1,025 an hour

Los Angeles just cut a whopping $106.6 million taxpayer check to a nonprofit law firm whose lawyers have spent years hindering the city’s ability to dismantle homeless camps and clean up city streets — with one attorney billing as much as $1,025 an hour for work tied to its activism.

The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) was awarded the largest share of an eye-popping $177 million tenant rights funding package approved at City Hall this week, despite opposition from the City Attorney.

Under the deal, Los Angeles will funnel $106,572,543.69 over the next three years to LAFLA for eviction defense services, even as attorneys connected to the organization have repeatedly filed lawsuits that blocked the city from enforcing municipal codes aimed at keeping sidewalks clear of encampments and neighborhoods safe.

But the money flowing to the group is far larger than that. City records show the Stay Housed LA eviction defense program, a city initiative administered by LAFLA through a network of partner organizations, had already grown to a maximum contract value of about $90.8 million through a series of amendments approved by the City Council.

Put together, the contracts push the pipeline of taxpayer funding tied to the nonprofit to about $197 million. That number jumps off the page when compared to the organization’s own finances.

Keep reading

Gavin Newsom’s wife and her firm pocketed $3.7M from her ‘gender stereotypes’ charity, unearthed IRS filings reveal…days after her sanctimonious rant at the press

Jennifer Siebel Newsom stole the spotlight at her husband’s Planned Parenthood press conference last month when she scolded reporters for not asking enough about the ‘war on women’.

But now, financial filings obtained by the Daily Mail suggest the First Partner of California may have to answer some tough questions of her own. 

IRS documents from recent years show Gavin Newsom‘s wife has been paying herself and her company, Girls Club LLC, up to a third of her nonprofit’s entire income each year – pocketing over $3.7 million over the past decade. 

Siebel Newsom, 51, runs the Representation Project, a charity that fights against ‘intersectional gender stereotypes’ and ‘harmful gender norms’. 

The organization brings in between $1 million and $1.7 million a year in grants and donations, with roughly $300,000 of it going straight to her and her company in recent years, according to financial records. 

The most recent IRS filings up to March 2024 show Siebel Newsom, who’s also the beneficiary of a multi-million-dollar trust from her wealthy family, receives a $150,000 annual salary from the Representation Project, and her company took another $150,000 from the charity’s funds. 

Her unusually high compensation to her and her company has recently sparked criticism from charity watchdogs – with a Daily Mail analysis showing Siebel Newsom and her nonprofit colleagues earn more than 95% of charities of a similar size. 

‘As [Governor Newsom] continues his national rebrand tour, the fact that he and his wife put one third of their “charity” revenues into their own pockets will undoubtedly raise red flags in the eyes of middle class Americans,’ Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the conservative transparency nonprofit Americans for Public Trust, told the Daily Mail, referencing the $300,000 paid to Siebel Newsom and her firm.

Keep reading