The wife of House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars from her charity into her for-profit organization, potentially deriving an “illegal private benefit” for the Washington power couple, reports the Daily Caller‘s Andrew Kerr.
The previously undisclosed cost-sharing arrangement between the two entities controlled by Maya Rockeymoore Cummings was detailed in audited statements obtained by Kerr.
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity, the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPS), paid her for-profit venture, Global Policy Solutions LLC, over $250,000 in “management fees” between 2013 and 2015, according to the charity’s audited financial statements covering those years. The management fees were paid in addition to a cost-sharing agreement where the charity pays for its share of equipment, personnel and other expenditures. –Daily Caller
“It’s self-dealing. It’s taking the charity’s resources and turning them into personal profits,” according to Tom Anderson in a statement to the Caller. Anderson is an investigator with the National Legal and Policy Center (NPLC), who added “IRS law doesn’t allow a charity for this purpose. This isn’t for the public interest, this is for her personal interest. You can’t do that.”
Charity watchdogs say this raises red flags.
Here’s the relevant portion of the charity’s financials below:https://t.co/oWGZQ47YkX pic.twitter.com/qYYxlpUvIL
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) June 6, 2019
What’s more, according to a May 20 report in the Washington Examiner, companies which fund Cummings’s charity have interests before her husband’s Congressional committee.
The NPLC filed a complaint with the IRS in May, claiming that Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity and LLC are potentially being used by companies to buy favorable treatment with Cummings.
“The problem is there are millions of dollars coming into these entities from corporations and special interests with business before Elijah Cummings, and any time you have that, every rule has to be followed or else it opens the door for massive corruption,” said Anderson in a previous statement to the Caller.
Others have questioned why Rockeymoore Cummings’s private company is charging a 5% management fee to her charity on top of an existing cost-sharing agreement.
Charity Watch President Daniel Borochoff said the funds flowing from Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity from the 5% management fee is problematic given her husband’s regulatory authority over the business interests funding her charity.
“That connection could be made,” Borochoff said. “All the more reason to get rid of that 5% arrangement.”
“My advice to them: get rid of the percentage arrangement and pay the LLC for whatever work its performing, but also to do whatever it can to separate the for-profit from the nonprofit,” he added. –Daily Caller
And while cost-sharing agreements between charities and other entities may be common, according to Chicago attorney Sally Wagenmaker, the management fee Cummings is charging her own charity “raises a potential red flag.”
The president of conservative watchdog group Capital Research Center agrees, adding “It’s a red flag for a powerful member like Elijah Cummings to have a family member receiving money from entities with issues before his powerful committee.”
I wonder why he isn’t investigating this???
Elijah Cummings’s Wife Used Her Charity To Enrich Her For-Profit Company, Documents Show | The Daily Caller https://t.co/zLbhwhrgSJ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 6, 2019
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2WpEfQo Tyler Durden