Joe Scarborough
Turning a blind eye to corporate crimes and playing fast and loose with your money
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | What do you do when the chairman of your nonprofit board gets busted for cooking the books at his corporation? If you have any sense or decency about you, you show them the door. But some of America's biggest charities are turning a blind eye to corporate crimes and playing fast and loose with your money. If you want to know how, here's the Real Deal.
ENRON'S KEN LAY served on the Heinz Foundation board for ten years and kept his position long after the Enron scandal broke. The Heinz Foundation, run by Senator Kerry's wife, Teresa, kept the corporate pirate on their ship even as Enron sank in a swamp filled by their own fraud and lies.
A Heinz spokesman said: "Whatever troubles he had at Enron…when someone does wrong in one part of their life, it doesn't mean they can't do good in another part of their life." Really? Then why don't we let bank robbers guard bank vaults? Because, given this criminal's record, it would be an obviously stupid thing to do. Which brings us to one of the most powerful charities in the world.
The Ford Foundation is loaded with cash from private contributors, raking in over $10 billion dollars in assets. Its chairman is a man named Paul A. Allaire, who has also served as a trustee of the $10 billion foundation since 1997, and currently sits on its audit and management committee.
So who is Paul Allaire? The same corporate titan who was busted by the Security and Exchange Commission in June for overstating Xerox corporation's profits by $1.4 billion. Allaire paid a $1 million penalty and gave up a $7.6b million bonus. Oh yeah…the Xerox exec was also banned from being on any public corporate board for five years.
And yet this private charity, like others across America, continue to have its board run, and its books audited, by the one of the same goons who cooked another corporation's financial records. To quote Tom Hanks in the movie "Big," "I don't get it."
Paul Alliare gave up $8.6 million, was slammed by the SEC, and banned from serving on any corporate board in America. Still, the $10 billion Ford Foundation lets him run their board and audit their books.
"I don't get it."
When asked why they would allow a man run their charity after cooking his company's books to the tune of $1.4 billion, the Ford Foundation said that it was best to "stay with a man who has been an exemplary leader."
Yeah, and inked a deal with the SEC involving $1.4 billion in fraud.
I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. And until charities like the Ford Foundation clean up their acts, they should not get your money.
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Former Congressman Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) hosts “Scarborough Country,” 10 p.m. ET, weeknights on MSNBC. Comment by clicking here.
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