Posts Tagged ‘Alpha Kappa Alpha’

From The AP:

The audit of the Chicago-based Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which was completed in December and provided to The Associated Press, also found two former top officials continued to use sorority credit cards after their service ended, failing to appropriately document tens of thousands of dollars in charges. A pending 2009 lawsuit against the organization and officials including its former president, Illinois resident Barbara McKinzie, contains similar allegations.

The audit by the Illinois-based accounting firm Ragland & Associates covers the year 2010 and is an annual audit paid for by the society. It finds that in that year McKinzie and two other top officials secretly created a second set of financial books to get around the sorority’s accounting policies.

“The intent was to divert and misappropriate AKA funds,”according to the audit, which found nearly $1.7 million in payments made without authorization.

Approximately $282,000 in credit card charges on the second set of books appear to be fraudulent, including personal charges the sorority wasn’t reimbursed for, the audit found.

From Page 19 of audit:

AKA’s tax returns for years 2007 through 2009 are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.  The audit is in process and is expected to be concluded sometime in January 2012.  The areas in which they are auditing are in the post Boule expenses, unrelated business income, regional directors office expenses (non-accountable plan expenses), set-aside income that has been authorized by the board, and travel and entertainment not supported with documents, including the American Express credit card expenses.”

(Translation: Somebody’s going to jail)

We now have time for a full day of apologies and brass ring kissing.  Line forms over there.  Please have your gifts cards and statements of regret ready as Mo’Kelly passes by.

Mo’Kelly may not be doing much investigative work right now…but his spies are!

Click HERE!

 

An apology refresher HERE.

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal. Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly. Contact him at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

Follow The Mo’Kelly Report

 

Yes Mo’Kelly said he wouldn’t be able to update everyone on the various series given

other commitments…but this fell in Mo’Kelly’s lap.

_____________________

From the AP:

WASHINGTON — A financial audit of the nation’s oldest black sorority found significant accounting problems including a secret set of books used by top officials to divert money, findings that bolster some claims in a lawsuit.

The audit of the Chicago-based Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which was completed in December and provided to The Associated Press, also found two former top officials continued to use sorority credit cards after their service ended, failing to appropriately document tens of thousands of dollars in charges. A pending 2009 lawsuit against the organization and officials including its former president, Illinois resident Barbara McKinzie, contains similar allegations.

The audit by the Illinois-based accounting firm Ragland & Associates covers the year 2010 and is an annual audit paid for by the society. It finds that in that year McKinzie and two other top officials secretly created a second set of financial books to get around the sorority’s accounting policies.

“The intent was to divert and misappropriate AKA funds,”according to the audit, which found nearly $1.7 million in payments made without authorization.

Approximately $282,000 in credit card charges on the second set of books appear to be fraudulent, including personal charges the sorority wasn’t reimbursed for, the audit found.

A sorority document written in response to the audit says the sorority discontinued the use of the second set of books in December 2010 and is currently developing written travel and entertainment policies that govern credit card use.

Alpha Kappa Alpha said in a statement Thursday that it is pleased to have the audit’s findings and that the sorority has made “great progress in enhancing the organization’s operational policies and procedures,” including taking steps suggested in the audit.

“We remain committed to preserving the assets of the organization and to continually reviewing and strengthening our operations. The audit’s findings are essential to that process,” the statement said.

McKinzie’s lawyer, Dale Cooter, said he had not seen the audit but said his client “did not create a fraudulent set of books.”

The pending lawsuit against the sorority, filed in the District of Columbia by sorority members, alleges McKinzie improperly used a sorority credit card for personal items including jewelry, designer clothing and lingerie. In court papers filed in March, McKinzie denies that she used the credit card inappropriately.

The lawsuit was initially dismissed in early 2010, but it was reinstated last August by an appeals court, which said the dismissal was premature. It seeks to recover allegedly misused money as well as punitive damages.

The lawsuit also includes an allegation about two wax statutes the sorority paid for during McKinzie’s tenure as president, from 2006 to 2010. One of the two statues commissioned for the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore was of McKinzie. The lawsuit alleges thousands of dollars over and above the cost of the statues went unaccounted for.

AKA was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washingtonand has a worldwide membership of over 200,000.

Story HERE!

(The line is long to be sure, but the line for those who owe Mo’Kelly an apology forms over there.  Mo’Kelly will gladly stand and wait for each and every one of you to come up, kiss the brass ring and beg Mo’Kelly’s forgiveness.  

You know who you are.  

For those who had continually supported Mo’Kelly even when it wasn’t “fashionable” to do so, I thank you.  Everyone else…start puckering.)

Mo’Kelly’s got all day…

You’re welcome…and your apologies are accepted.

 

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal. Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly. Contact him at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

Follow The Mo’Kelly Report

 

The court today ruled that the original dismissal by Judge Natalia Combs Greene was too soon, which blocked any consideration of the allegations by the original 8 plaintiffs on the merits.

Duh?!

That decision was OVERTURNED on appeal…and now remanded for TRIAL!

Hello there Barbara McKinzie…

I’m BAAAAAAAACK!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority is going BACK to trial!

Mo’Kelly had to call in a favor from the courts to get the following document, but you are welcome to share it far and wide.

Click HERE.

 

 

The Mo’Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published at The Huffington Post and EURWEB.com. For the most recent posts of Mr. Mo’Kelly, visit http://mrmokelly.com.  Mr. Mo’Kelly can be reached at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

Free Subscription to The Mo’Kelly Report HERE

Follow The Mo’Kelly Report on Facebook  HERE

Twitter – @mrmokelly

Then-Supreme Basileus of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Barbara A. McKinzie pocketed (in terms of what was actually reported to the IRS) almost half a million dollars, according to the organization’s official 990 form for fiscal year 2009.

That’s more than President Obama and his “job” is a paid position.  According to the organization’s bylaws, the position of Supreme Basileus of Alpha Kappa Alpha is an unpaid, volunteer position.

Other figures of note include another $447, 879 in “legal fees” (page 8).  Altogether, almost $900,000 was paid to or because of McKinzie’s activities.

Again, this is only what is actually being reported.  It’s unrealistic to suspect that this number includes any bogus reimbursements for inappropriate expenses to the organization’s corporate credit card or disbursements made off the books.

Let’s not forget to tip our hat to Executive Director Betty James who did quite well in her own right with more than 200k pocketed in 2009.

Straight highway robbery.  Your dues, your Boule registrations…straight to their bank accounts.

Anyone want to place a bet that McKinzie took another half million in 2010?

Feel free to examine the full 26-page tax document HERE.  FACEBOOK SHARE this post for all those who care about Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

(And y’all thought Mo’Kelly was done with this story?!  Think again…)

This was in Mo’Kelly’s stack of mail for about a week.  The Mo’Kelly Report is a one-man-unit.  From the writer, to the webmaster to the copywriter to the publisher to the news researcher.

Meaning, not all things hit the home page as quickly as Mo’Kelly would like.  This would be one of those occasions.

You might remember Cynthia Finch, former Southeastern Regional Director for Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, crony/close “business” associate of Barbara A. McKinzie.  A Knoxville jury convicted the former Knox County Community Services Director of two counts of felony forgery.

Translation…her a$$ is going to jail.

Finch, prior to being arrested had designs of becoming the organizations Supreme Basileus at the 2010 Boule.

Felonies do have a way of changing life plans.  Let’s take a look at what life will be like for Forging Finch in the months and years to come…

And ALSO ordered that the sorority pay $2500.00 in court costs for Julia Purnell!  Yes!

FULL STORY HERE.

But Purnell’s attorney said there were about 80 checks missing for amounts in excess of $10,000, that half of the expenses on an American Express account lacked coding and that records for one account — called the Profit Fund — couldn’t be found, though the auditors discovered a checks for about $350,000 written against it.

“It appears that the books and records of the sorority are in disarray, whether intentionally or unintentionally,” Major told Judge Daniel Riley.

McKinzie did not appear in court Friday. Carolyn House Stewart, who is the sorority’s current president and executive director, and McKinzie ally Deborah Dangerfield attended the hearing.

“We have complied with all orders of the court,” said Stewart, a Tampa, Fla., attorney.

Also Friday, the judge also ordered AKA to pay $2,500 to cover court costs for  Purnell.

The Mo’Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published at The Huffington Post and www.eurweb.com. It is meant to inform, infuse and incite meaningful discourse…as well as entertain. For more Mo’Kelly, http://mrmokelly.com. Mr. Mo’Kelly can be reached at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

www.twitter.com/mrmokelly

(But once again, remember you read about it FIRST…in The Mo’Kelly Report.)

According to a recently conducted financial investigation by an Elmhurst-based Illinois firm, Edward Kirby & Associates, Inc., AKA Inc., gave about $2 million in reimbursements and pay to McKinzie over the four years she served as president of the organization.

Although the investigators had limited time in which to conduct their review of the organization’s financial records, their examination found that McKinzie received “combined payments for compensation, retirement, taxes and expenses in excess of $2.2 million dollars.”

The review also discovered life insurance payments paid by

"Y'all misunderstood me...I didn't want a 'wax statue'...I wanted a 'waxed lip'. My bad."

AKA on behalf of McKinzie of more than $170,000 — among other financial perks.

“It is noted that these payments were just from a review of the general account and the American Express charge account,” wrote Steven Kirby in a letter detailing the review to Major and dated Sept. 20.

The review was conducted on behalf of Purnell who won a court order.

“There were several other AKA bank accounts that were not examined due to time and budget constraints from which additional funds were paid to Barbara McKinzie,” Kirby wrote.

According to the summary of the financial review, there were several “questionable transactions and/or bookkeeping issues.”

Fourteen missing checks, each for more than $10,000, totaling more than $327,000 that were not listed in the register;

Several duplicate expenses submitted by McKinzie paid by AKA’s American Express account;

Quarterly expense reports submitted by McKinzie with receipts from previous years;

Several thousand dollars charged for clothing from high fashion stores;

Over $35,000 for purchases listed as gifts that showed limited or no details;

Payments of McKinzie’s home and cell phone bills over $13,000.

“It is the opinion of the investigators that the preliminary findings to date would warrant a much more detailed examination and analysis of the books and records of AKA,” Kirby wrote. “The areas that should be focused on include a review of the additional bank accounts focusing on similar suspect payments as found in the review of the general account [and] an interview with Barbara McKinzie regarding questionable charges.”

Full story HERE.

The Mo’Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published at The Huffington Post and www.eurweb.com. It is meant to inform, infuse and incite meaningful discourse…as well as entertain. For more Mo’Kelly, http://mrmokelly.com. Mr. Mo’Kelly can be reached at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

www.twitter.com/mrmokelly

Once again, The Mo’Kelly Report was already way out in front of the story.  You can read about it after the fact in the news…or you can read about it in The Mo’Kelly Report.

Just sayin’…

Full story HERE

In fact, the Chicago Sun-Times did a SECOND story, outlining some of the more outrageous expenses.

Second story HERE.

The Mo’Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published at The Huffington Post and www.eurweb.com. It is meant to inform, infuse and incite meaningful discourse…as well as entertain. For more Mo’Kelly, http://mrmokelly.com. Mr. Mo’Kelly can be reached at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

www.twitter.com/mrmokelly