Twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appears to have taken a page out of BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors’s playbook.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Abrams’s nonprofit (ha!) attempted to purchase multi-million dollar real estate . . . and then fired its chief operations officer as well as its directors of design and digital marketing, citing a lack of funds.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
The New Georgia Project had $11 million in its investment account in August when it set out to pay $2.45 million in cash for a sprawling Atlanta compound. Less than two months later, the organization dismissed half its leadership staff, citing a lack of funds.A series of internal documents and correspondences obtained by the Washington Free Beacon reveals the bizarre circumstances surrounding the real estate deal, which several parties close to the matter say are indicative of a leadership crisis within the Stacey Abrams-founded group. The deal was spearheaded by Erin Ferguson, a junior New Georgia Project staffer who in a group text urged senior leadership in late August to sign a letter of intent to purchase the two adjacent properties and swiftly pay a $30,000 non-refundable deposit.But a former New Georgia Project senior executive told the Free Beacon that the rush to purchase the properties was strange, noting that the buildings needed at least $288,000 in repairs to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The group was already locked into a $15,000-per-month lease at its current office through 2025, the former senior executive said.
And the strangeness just gets stranger.
The Free Beacon continues:
The real estate deal is the latest murky financial situation involving the New Georgia Project. The group, which was founded to register non-white voters and once helmed by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.), missed the deadline to file required financial disclosures to the IRS. The Free Beacon reported this month that the group’s top accountant was fired after claiming he was unable to work there out of fear of breaking the law.According to an Aug. 26 letter of intent obtained by the Free Beacon, the New Georgia Project sought to purchase the properties from Global Resource Partners, LLC. But Global Resource Partners never owned the properties. A real estate agent representing the Sheet Metal Workers Building Association, which owns the compound, told the Free Beacon that Global Resource Partners went under contract to buy the properties for around $1.92 million during the same timeframe the LLC was ostensibly trying to sell the properties to the New Georgia Project.The real estate agent was surprised to learn that Global Resource Partners was simultaneously trying to flip the properties for at least $530,000. He added that he couldn’t recall hearing about the New Georgia Project until contacted by the Free Beacon on Nov. 21.”It makes you wonder why someone would go so far, put something under contract, not close on it, and not tell you any good reason why they didn’t do it,” the real estate agent said. “They kept saying they had to go out of town. Well, a bank wire can be sent anywhere in the country.”
Something is definitely strange here.
It’s not clear if New Georgia Partners ever signed the letter of intent or submitted the $30,000 earnest money deposit to purchase the properties from Global Resource Partners. It’s also not clear why Global Resource Partners dropped out of purchasing the properties at the last minute.On Oct. 7, the New Georgia Project’s director of human resources during a video conference fired its chief operations officer as well as its directors of design and digital marketing. The reason given was that the organization could no longer afford their salaries.
Fired top staff during a video conference? Citing lack of funds?
This whole thing is surreal. Investigations should be launched, but I would be surprised if they are.
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