Foundation

Charity President Caught In Blatant Conflict Of Interest

The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation steered more than $100,000 to a charitable organization managed by its president, in the second case of a sitting board member’s non-profit group benefiting from the foundation’s monetary grants.

Social Ventures Inc., a charitable organization managed by Ben & Jerry’s board member Jeff Furman, raked in around $118,000 coming from the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation between 2016 and also 2020, according to financial disclosure documents.

Throughout this time, Furman acted as President of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation from 2018 to 2020 and as treasurer in 2016 and 2017. He was additionally a participant of Ben & Jerry’s corporate board as well as in-house counsel for more than 30 years, according to the foundation’s site.

The funding raises questions regarding the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation’s financial activities just days after the ice cream maker’s prominent effort to boycott Israel collapsed. The grants are also creating concerns coming from ethics watch dogs who say they could present a conflict of interest and could possibly violate laws regarding self-dealing.

The National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics watch dog group that has been tracking the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation’s investing, told reporters the financing presents a conflict of interest.

“Unilever should understand they’re dealing with a radical progressive board with apparently huge conflicts of interest with corporate funds that are magically being steered to personal pet projects and nonprofits of board members,” said Tom Anderson, the director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Government Integrity Project.

Federal regulation prohibits self-dealing, which the IRS defines as the “transfer to, or use by or for the benefit of, a disqualified person of the income or assets of a private foundation.” An excluded individual includes “any person who was in a position to exercise substantial influence over the affairs of the applicable tax-exempt organization” in the course of the five years prior to the purchase, according to the internal revenue service.

Social Ventures Inc. says it works to provide “social justice for disadvantaged people,” depending on to its tax conversation reports. The Ben & Jerry’s grants composed a substantial part of Social Ventures’ funding, making up one-fourth of its income in 2020.

Last year, the National Legal and Policy Center submitted a complaint with the IRS over the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation’s grants to various nonprofit groups run through an additional director at the foundation, Anuradha Mittal.

Mittal has been a fiduciary on the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation board since 2012 as well as likewise sits on the independent corporate board. In the course of this instance, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation provided $195,000 to the Oakland Institute, an anti-Israel non-profit organization operated by Mittal that has pubhlished sympathetic columns on behalf of Hezbollah and Hamas.

Mittal and also Furman appear to possess a closeworking relationship. Furman serves on the panel of Mittal’s Oakland Principle, and he enlisted her to the board of Ben & Jerry’s, according to the New York Post.

Mittal is a leading force behind Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop purchases in Israel last July, which anti-Israel activists sought to use as a jumping-off place to compel other companies to cut economic connections with the Jewish nation.

She has actually published on Twitter on behalf of the Boycott, Divestment, as well as Decrees activity, complimented vocalist Shakira for calling off a performance in Israel, and also defended Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D., Minn.) declaring that pro-Israel members of Congress possess an “allegiance” to an international federal government.

“Criticism of AIPAC is not anti-Semitic & calling for Congress not to have allegiances to foreign countries (Israel) is not anti-Semitic,” Mittal wrote in March 2019, “but targeting the first black Muslim member of Congress with false accusations of antiSemitism IS Islamophobic!”

Unilever, the parent provider of Ben & Jerry’s, turned down the frozen yogurt company’s boycott try on Wednesday and said it would resume sales in Israel via a 3rd party vendor.

“Unilever rejects completely and repudiates unequivocally any form of discrimination or intolerance. Anti-Semitism has no place in any society,” Unilever said. “We have never expressed any support for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement and have no intention of changing that position.”

Ben & Jerry’s did not respond to requests for comment.

H/T The Washington Free Beacon

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