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Ward Connerly accused of mismanaging institute funds

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Ward Connerly, the African American former University of California trustee who vehemently opposed affirmative action, is now fighting charges of mismanaging donations to an organization he founded, for personal gain.

A high-ranking ex-employee, Jennifer Gratz, sent a letter to the board of the American Civil Rights Institute–the nonprofit organization Connerly founded in Sacramento–accusing Connerly and requesting an investigation into his financial practices, specifically overcompensation, and noting that the Internal Revenue Service and California attorney general’s office were also investigating related salary, financial and ethical issues involving the institute.

In an interview on Jan 18, Connerly, 72, said the organization had been under financial strain and at times his pay exceeded the amount of revenue coming in to the institute, but he maintained that a majority of the claims that Gratz made were false, and only the result of her being upset with not replacing him as head of the organization. Gratz resigned from ACRI in September.

Connerly stated that his payments were all legitimate and included compensation for management of the organization, fundraising, speeches, research, personal security, etc., and that his pay has already been reduced to $850,000. The pay had been as high as $1.3 million.

Gratz’s letter, written by her attorney, Robert N. Driscoll, alleges a number of financial irregularities in the organization, among them that it “knowingly” issued inaccurate W-2 forms. Connerly said the errors were made inadvertently by a bookkeeper and have since been corrected.

In a statement through her attorney, Gratz said: “Leaving ACRI after being a loyal employee for eight years was a difficult decision because I remain strongly committed to the principle of equality that ACRI served for many years and because I have appreciated the work of Ward Connerly–someone who I was lucky to at one time to call a mentor and a friend. Unfortunately… I now have come to the conclusion that the resources provided to ACRI by its generous donors are not being properly spent and that ACRI’s mission is being jeopardized.”

Board chair of the organization Johnny Zamrzla said in a statement that the board has reviewed the issues raised in the letter, but has not taken any action thus far to investigate Gratz’s claims.

“Like many nonprofits, these last few years have presented a number of financial challenges that we are working through as an organization,” Zamrzla said in the statement. “We are disappointed that Ms. Gratz decided to leave our organization and then chose to go to The New York Times, a longtime opponent of our efforts, to air her concerns.”

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