Project Veritas Reportedly Suspends Operations
This train wreck was obvious the day James left Project Veritas. The recriminations are flowing in every direction.
This train wreck became inevitable the day James O’Keefe was forced out (or left on his own, depending who you believe). O’Keefe was the public face and persona of Project Veritas, and the reason so many people gave so many millions of dollars. No James, no donations sufficient to sustain the operation.
We covered the drama as it unfolded:
- James O’Keefe Out at Project Veritas, Updated with Video (February 20, 2023)
- O’Keefe Video: “I don’t build to have donors, I have donors to build” (February 20, 2023)
- Project Veritas To Conduct “Two-Dimensional” Audit Of James O’Keefe Expenses Looking For Problems (February 23, 2023)
- VIDEO: “We, the Whistleblowers of Project Veritas stand with James O’Keefe” (February 24, 2023)
- ‘I’m Back’: James O’Keefe Launches New Media Company After Project Veritas Ouster (March 15, 2023)
- Project Veritas Seeks Injunction Against James O’Keefe and O’Keefe Media Group In Newly-Filed Lawsuit (May 31, 2023)
- Project Veritas v. James O’Keefe: Parties “engaged in productive discussions to attempt to resolve this case” (August 27, 2023)
Since that last linked post, the Washington Post obtained an alleged draft of an audit report from Project Veritas’ outside counsel detailing James alleged excess spending. The Post summarized the findings, but did not publish or link the actual audit report. The report was consistent with the allegations made against James in the lawsuit and eslewhere – He spent too much on being James:
In August 2022, James O’Keefe needed to get to Maine for a sailing trip. Rather than take a commercial flight for roughly $200, the conservative undercover-video activist directed his employees to book a $12,000 helicopter flight direct from New York to the seaside town of Southwest Harbor, using funds donated to Project Veritas, the nonprofit he founded, according to a draft of a private internal audit conducted by an independent law firm.
When bad weather forced the helicopter to make an unscheduled landing in Portland, O’Keefe booked a $1,400 black car for the three-hour drive from the helipad to the sailboat. O’Keefe justified the expenses by saying that he had a meeting near the dock, the audit stated. Two Project Veritas staffers described the person he met with to The Washington Post as a low-level donor.
It wasn’t the first time O’Keefe had covered personal expenses with funds from the donor-supported nonprofit whose self-described mission is investigative journalism, according to the report compiled by Dorsey & Whitney, a firm hired by the Project Veritas board in the wake of its founder’s departure in February. A copy of the report was shared with The Post.
There was $208,980 worth of luxury black-car travel over a two-year period. There was a $600 haul of bottled water during one hotel stay in San Antonio. There was even a $2,500 set of DJ equipment; O’Keefe dreamed of playing a set at Coachella, according to two former employees, and was irritated when his staff couldn’t get him booked at the legendary California music festival.
Based on the description in WaPo, it’s far from clear that any of this was criminal, but getting James prosecuted seems to be a major objective of those with whom he had a falling out. Neither the lawsuit nor getting James prosecuted ever could save the company.
Amid layoffs, there were reports that Project Veritas was running out of money:
Mediaite obtained audio from an August 22 meeting between Giles, Project Veritas board president Joe Barton, and several staffers. At the meeting, held just days after 23 staffers were fired and two resigned, Giles can be heard explaining that the organization is in financial ruin.
“It’s devastating,” Giles said. “I’ve got to get back into the bank accounts to see what’s real and what’s not real because I have been getting presented with things that were not making sense and then when I’m presented with okay there’s only a thousand dollars left in the 501(c) (3) and I thought we had until October. We did a half a million dollar transfer and that was this period. But, like, we’re bankrupt.”
Giles continued to paint a bleak financial portrait of the well-known conservative nonprofit that raked in $22 million of donor cash in one recent year.
“The bills that are owed and everything, and there’s lawyers threatening to like, to force us into bankruptcy, and come take all this stuff,” Giles said. “So, I do not want us, I do not want to declare bankruptcy or go into bankruptcy, but we have to imagine that’s where we’re at so how do we get to the point where we’re clawing our way out of that situation?”
“So, we’re under water?” one staffer asked. Giles responded: “Yeah.”
Accusations were flying that Hannah Giles, who took over for O’Keefe, mismanaged the operation.
Project Veritas announced in a mass email this morning:
For more than a decade, Project Veritas has led the pursuit of transparency and truth in the media and other powerful institutions.
Due to various events and circumstances, we are making changes in the operations of our organization including laying off additional employees. Our hearts go out to our colleagues and their families as this difficult transition occurs, and we thank them for their dedication and hard work and hope for the best new opportunities for them.
Project Veritas is continuing to operate, but we are pausing our fundraising efforts and proactively taking steps to honor our donors’ expectations and to preserve the trust the American people have placed in us.
We are incredibly grateful for everyone who supports us in fulfilling our mission. It is our sincere hope that Project Veritas can continue many more years of delivering truth for the American people.
Hannah Giles, CEO, Project Veritas
Media reports are that operations are in fact suspended:
Project Veritas, the conservative organization founded by James O’Keefe, suspended all operations on Wednesday after another round of layoffs, Mediaite has learned.
According to a letter titled “Reduction in Force” that was sent to Project Veritas staffers by HR director Jennifer Kiyak on Wednesday, the organization is putting all operations on pause amidst severe financial woes.
“In the interest of preserving the possible future existence of Project Veritas we need to put operations on pause and, as communicated since the Spring, another Reduction in Force (“RIF”) is necessary,” Kiyak wrote.
Six staffers were laid off from the embattled organization this week, sources said, including all remaining journalists and one development associate. One former Project Veritas staffer said just 11 people remain on the non-profit’s payroll, including CEO Hannah Giles.
Kiyak wrote in the letter that the group cannot “carry the present staff count any longer” and reminded those being laid off of their nondisclosure agreements.
Things are only going to get uglier, with James needing to find another source of funding to defend against the criminal investigation of Ashley Biden’s diary:
James O'Keefe, Eric Cochran, Spencer Meads, the three former Project Veritas journalists raided by the FBI regarding the Ashley Biden Diary – announce they are teaming up with the nonprofit legal defense fund, Private Citizen.
This comes on the heels of Project Veritas… pic.twitter.com/S9pnQ50Y3r
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) September 21, 2023
And the recriminations are flowing in every direction:
Good job taking the man's company and burning it down everyone. Total senseless act of destruction.
Project Veritas ceases operations, lays off all remaining journalistshttps://t.co/U3SeNv9uYc
— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) September 21, 2023
He was fired for cause when lawyers investigated staff claims and documented his misappropriation of massive amounts of donor/non profit funds and all sorts of other malfeasance (such as: ya can’t fly private to go on your vacation & lie about it, can’t fire a cfo who tells you…
— Matthew Tyrmand (@MatthewTyrmand) September 21, 2023
It’s pretty clear the company is over. But not the drama.
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Comments
OK, so how should this have been handled? People didn’t donate money to subsidize his extravagant lifestyle. I would hope that Prof J would never do this at the LIF, but suppose it were raking in that kind of money, and he were to give in to the terrible temptation to do so, what ought to be done about it?
Idiotic. Donors didn’t O’Keefe spent the money on, as long as he was producing the content they donated for.
And that’s exactly what he did.
In fact, several donors have EXPLICITLY said that even if the Veritas board’s allegations were 100% true, they still didn’t care.
There’s a reason that every single one of their donors stopped giving money to Veritas as soon as they fired O’Keefe, and it wasn’t because O’Keefe was spending money on Black Cars.
Donors need to vet the organizations they fund. I even read account statements from smaller groups, like the Carolina Tiger Rescue.
Watch out for that Carole Baskin too!
Hang him high/sarc
Oh, so now standards matter. “Nobody died because he wore a hoody and shorts!”
Well, nobody died because JO spent money on rented limousines.
I’m guessing there’s more than a few left-wing NGOs who’ve rented limos. No one on that side cares because they have their eyes on the prize.
Forgetting who the real enemy is and what their goals are is the number 1 problem with Republicans & Conservatives today,
Wow. Eleven downvotes and no one actually addressing the question.
How should something like this be treated?
I’ll answer it GWB.
If donors don’t like JO spending money on helicopter flights and “black cars,” then they had the right to stop donating to PV. Or to voice their dismay.
This is no different than the CEOs of the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross and other charities (nonprofits) paying themselves $million salaries and traveling on private jets.
Regarding the downfall of PV. O’Keefe left. Whether fired or walked out, he’s gone. The donations and employees of any value left with him.
Now PV is up Schiffs Creek without a paddle. They created the mess, let them swim in it. Good riddance.
Now that JO is at OMG, if the donors don’t like his spending habits, then they can stop donating.
FWIW, it appears that JO didn’t violate any laws, other than what was invented in the minds of leftist prosecutors.
If it can be proven JO broke the law, the. He can be tried by a jury of his peers and let the chips fall where they may.
Actually the creation of Project Veritas was the result of the main stream medias failure to cover real stories. People wanted the truth and he provided truth and embarrassed the frauds and freaks. People still want the truth, not an empty shell of an organization.
Currently, O’Keefe and Project Veritas are facing investigations from the Westchester County DA in New York and the ongoing Ashley Biden Diary prosecution in the Southern District of New York. In the latter, Project Veritas journalists, including O’Keefe, are being prosecuted by the federal government for receiving Ashley Biden’s abandoned diary. The diary contains discussions of inappropriate showers that she took with President Joe Biden as a child.
Furthermore, a local Connecticut news outlet has reported that the Westchester DA is investigating Project Veritas for possible financial crimes. The investigation centers around tens of thousands of dollars in potential check-washing fraud.
The Bidens are the lowest lowlifes of a family there is. They go around losing their important, personal, incriminating stuff and then they set the government after the people who happen to find their lost things.
The whole Biden clan is a putrid waste of DNA. The entire family. Every single one of them. Despicable lowlifes that evolution would have swiftly taken care of in a more natural setting.
I never thought of it that way, but you’re 100% right.
List the incriminating things they lost:
Son’s laptop.
Son’s gun.
Daughter’s diary.
Fathers illegal storehouses (3) of classified documents.
Are there more?
Joe’s intellect and honesty? Oh wait, scratch that. He never had them to begin with?
Check Washing by Project. V. Really!? I doubt that. It is a hung problem, but seems to point more at the key voter fraud groups like the Post Office.
Ha down voted because I said Check washing is a PO issue! LOL.
Ridiculous
How about Russiagate?
Perhaps they should prosecute Ashley for abandoning her diary.
Check washing? Like Frank Abagnale check washing?
blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. FU very much.
O’Keefe should learn to code, if the allegations are true. This adds to my skepticism when people are asking for money.
Like the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre, who allegedly spent $750,000 on suits (clothing) over 10 years or whatever. But he still keeps getting elected.
…several donors have EXPLICITLY said that even if the Veritas board’s allegations were 100% true, they still didn’t care.
And this makes it OK? I call BS.
Nope, it’s absolutely true.
I didn’t care where Wayne LaPierre bought his suits or built his houses, as long as he kept protecting the rights I paid him to protect — namely, keeping state and federal gun control legislation from succeeding.
It was only after he began doing things like taking public positions that he wouldn’t oppose a ban on bump stocks and suppressors, undermining Parker (ultimately Heller) v DC because “it’s not time yet to press this issue” (it was THE Main Event issue, ya mook!), and corrupting the corporate elections just in time to prevent a hard-working and deserving rival of his from succeeding to the Association presidency, that people like me began to ask, “what the hell are we paying you for?”
And we stopped.
Just like we stopped paying Veritas.
Letitia James didn’t wound LaPierre, she merely smelled the blood that was already in the water.
So, it made no difference to you that an organization to which you donated didn’t prioritize spending that money on the reason for which you donated it, and instead spent it on perks for the top guy? That’s the point of those accusations laid against LaPierre – that money could have been used for the actual promotion of the 2d Amendment and for fighting bad laws and other infringements of American rights.
You can argue that the amounts were trivial, or that he “deserved it.” But if you argue that you just don’t care then you’re saying everyone else’s donations to the cause aren’t as important as yours.
I met Wayne LaPierre in the early 90’s when Dick Riley was President of the NRA. (We lived in the same town, and his former gun store was the “center of the universe.”) Dick was upset that LaPierre kept pushing back against activism & legal pursuits, always saying the time wasn’t right, the venue wasn’t right, the facts & circumstances weren’t right, etc. LaPierre would try to get NRA-ILA and NRA-PVF to back squishy candidates for office because “they’ve always been there for us.” Most of the squishes voted for the machine gun ban, the Brady bill, against the sunset provision of the “assault weapons ban” and watering down the FOPA.
But LaPierre’s hand picked treasurer and chief of operations completely screwed up a contract with one of the Big 5 accounting/consulting firms to provide a financial management system (CRM essentially) that merged all the data from NRA, NRA-ILA, NRA-PVF, and the NRA Foundation. Dick Riley brought in several of us from NH, ME, and MA whom he knew to look at the contract, the specifications, and the correspondence regarding the system – it was a horror show. The glaring item that was causing grief all around was the inability to cancel out a transaction – not just put in a reversing entry, but cancel it. At the time, if a check bounced, everyone except NRA-PVF wanted to cancel the transaction. NRA-PVF, because they were subject to FEC and state campaign finance laws, had to go with reversing entries. But the system couldn’t accommodate that, and they were asking for hundreds of thousands to correct it. (It was a $7 or 8 million contract, and already several million over budget + 2 years late.) LaPierre just wanted to pay it and not cause problems, which had been his MO from the beginning. The accountant who was part of our team said the problem was the system didn’t comply with GAAP, but page 1 of the statement of work called for it as requirement number 2 or 3.
And LaPierre’s hand picked Treasurer, a CPA, couldn’t figure that out?
This was all in the week prior to a NRA BOD meeting, and we went to talk to several board members about the findings.
And LaPierre was still rehired. That, and when Tanya Metaksa was pushed out is when I stopped donating.
Fine, keep YOUR money.
These complaints against O’Keefe are ridiculous. He wasted a little money … big whoop. If he wasn’t ding what his donors wanted they would stopped donating to him … as they have since done with the lowlifes who took over Project Veritas.
This was just a hit job against O’Keefe. Clearly. It is great that the corpse of Project Veritas is now done. O’Keefe will carry on with his new company. The lowlifes who took over Veritas (and wrote its death sentence) should crawl back to their handlers and hope that no one ever really finds out what they really did.
I was almost as pissed off at Project Veritas for firing their founder as I was at Fox for firing Tucker.
May their organization be utterly destroyed, stomped into the ground, and the earth salted.
Erronius
And after this how many entities will ever dare challenge Pfizer in the future?
GOPe being GOPe.
“Accusations were flying that Hannah Giles, who took over for O’Keefe, mismanaged the operation.”
Bullshit.
Giles is the patsy.
The evil cabal looked for someone sympathetic to their O’Keefe fans to be come the “new public face of Veritas,” and declared her CEO. Hannah had 100% unproven CEO chops. She’s Jolene Biden, and Jolene Bien is exactly what the cabal wanted.
If it all falls apart, she’s the one they throw under the bus.
And I bet the cheap bastards weren’t even giving her 10%.
And for those of you that weren’t paying attention when this first happened.
Initially, the Veritas board announced it had suspended O’Keefe, citing vague ‘complaints of harassment’.
It was only days later, after the massive backlash, that they abruptly released the allegations of financial misconduct.
That’s why nobody bought it then, why the donors abandoned them, and why very few people care about it now.
Yeah, and those allegations were far different than the current set.
The top guy is judged by how well the organization is doing. The rest of the stuff doesn’t matter.
The rest of the stuff doesn’t matter.
Except it does. Things like profligate spending on luxuries might indicate the executives of a company aren’t really concerned about the product or the employees, or that they’re “raiding” the company for goodies as it internally hemorrhages. The values of the CEO will get reflected in how they treat the company’s finances and employees – or even in stupid tweets.
You might have to accept a person with crappy values to run the company because he’s good at it. But it will always come back to bite you in the end if that person stays around long enough.
Except that James O’Keefe DID deliver the product, over and over again. As evidenced quite clearly by the total lack of product produced by Veritas since his departure.
Are any of these allegations even true? Since they were not put forward at the time of his ouster (I remember only harassment and toxic work environment claims) I am entitled to be skeptical of their verity.
It i quite clear that O’Keefe is and was targeted by the PTB, and the only reason for that is because he was EFFECTIVE.
I would have continued donating to Veritas even if it were disclosed to me that every single one of these financial peccadilloes was true, and I will continue supporting OMG, even if James continues to rent Black Cars.
How people donate to organizations are their business.
I liked the things that PV was exposing. Liberals didn’t. It was OK in the past that “gotcha” journalism was a good thing, as long as someone else’s ox was gored.
It pissed people off that JO turned the tables on exposing the left. More important, he was exposing liars.
Having said that, I never donated a dime to PV.
But I did donate to American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, and other charities, until I realized that their CEOs were getting $million salaries, taking extravagant trips, renting “black cars,” and private jets. That told me that any donations I made never made it to someone who needed help, until the CEO got paid.
I consider that raiding the company for goodies.
The same with the local food bank. I donated money regularly. Until I found out the the executive director was being paid $130,000.
To me, that was a bit extravagant for someone claiming to help poor people. I don’t expect poverty wages, but 3x the median salary?
I still contribute to my church. But my money is donated to pay for specific things, not a general fund. Maintenance, upkeep, education. Let the others pay the pastors salary.
I’d like to see Ralph Nader’s financial disclosures.
James IS the stuff. Project Veritas does not exist without him.
No idea why media has labeled him as conservative, he’s one excellent comedian and entertainer with Libertarian instincts.
Don’t know what to think about Hannah but I hope that she didn’t sell him down the river.
The very fact that she took the job after the board ousted him tells you everything you need to know about her.
Even if she somehow believed that getting rid of O’Keefe were justified, only a complete and utter moron would have believed that Project Veritas had a future after the backlash.
There is another failed company in her wake. She is 2 for 2.
O keefe will survive and continue in his important work
Based on some of the comments here it seems that the WaPo smear campaign against O’Keefe has been believed by some before any actual evidence is produced. The Left always works to destroy it’s enemies not just silence them. Thus the criminal case against O’Keefe.
They kill also, Breitbert, Scalia, Rich….
Very disappointed that O’Keefe started acting like a BLM honcho.
I think there is a few decimals missing in that statement. 81 B extorted dollars verse 22 m given by free will.
There’s plenty of stink about this whole thing. It might be difficult for some to distinguish whence it comes.
But… the accusations surrounding a lavish lifestyle funded by donors are troublesome. It might mean he was more interested in producing outrage than in finding the truth. It also might not mean that.
As to the donors not caring, well, he formed a corporation. So there are responsibilities that come with incorporating. It’s no longer about a bunch of folks just giving you money – there’s rules involved. I won’t say he’s actually broken any (I haven’t dived into it), but that would be what the accusations should be about,
I do not like vanity projects. They always go off the rails by virtue of being founded on hubris. But I really would like to see enough discovery on this to establish what really happened. Then everyone will have a much better basis for their positions, and not just celebrity worship.
“not just celebrity worship”
And with that statement, you have already revealed your position.. Vanity, hubris, accusations are troublesome. Very telling.
Face it; you’ve decided that where’s there’s leftist smoke, there is a conservative on fire. Any protestations of “I will evaluate the evidence and decide” are cover for your already formed opinion.
Well, it seems to me there is a chance this whole thing is a take down job. O’Keefe is on the short list with Trump as far as the leftists and deep state are concerned. Leftists have weaponized the entire federal government, some state governments and other corporate institutions against those who stand in their way. We know the feds orchestrated J6. As Chuckles Schumer said, “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer said.“
The way to judge this is to compare O’Keefe’s personal expenditures and compensation to those running similar sized non-profits. Readers will then learn that this is a systemic problem and not particular to O’Keefe.
Firing the goose that laid the golden egg is the death of many organizations. Veritas WAS James O’Keefe. Without him, they were nothing.
And now don’t exist.
Good riddance.
Interesting. I was just contacted by E-mail “”by Hannah Giles (maybe)” asking for a donation.
This was my response:
Hannah:
As James, who started and was the founder, heart and soul of Project Veritas, was defenestrated by the board of the very company he founded and built, by the sweat of his hands, why would I want to invest/donate to a company that “just” bears the name he chose, but cannot tolerate his presence?
I appreciate the work You did with him on the ACORN investigation, as I do the opinions of your father in his columns. But I’m a believer in supporting those in whom I believe and trust. Therefore, I choose to pass on supporting Project Veriras, a shell of itself, living only on James’ reputation.
Please remove me from your mailing list.
Thanks!
***************************************************
It was clear the James was PV and then the Board threw him out. PV is dead and I expected it. James new company will prosper as will he. Biden and DOJ attempt to go after James for the Biden Daughter’s Diary has nothing and is typical of Biden’s DOJ being attack vehicles against non-Dems.
How much coin for Dorsey & Whitney?