The Georgia Secretary of State has commenced an investigation into the financial activities of the New Georgia Project, a voting-rights nonprofit organization established by Stacey Abrams. This follows reports of alleged financial misconduct by former executives of the organization as well as questions raised by accounting and legal professionals regarding its recent tax filings. As part of the investigation, authorities may issue subpoenas to parties associated with the New Georgia Project in order to uncover further information.
The New Georgia Project had previously been accused of failing to meet charity laws and regulations in multiple states across the country, prompting criticism over the lack of transparency and potential misuse of funds. The ongoing investigation is looking into these matters to ensure that all donations remained within legal boundaries and that there was no misuse or misappropriation of funds.
The Washington Free Beacon reported,
Founded by Abrams in 2013, the New Georgia Project quickly rose to become one of the nation’s leading voter registration groups. Together the New Georgia Project and its affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund raised a combined $54.7 million since 2020.
The Free Beacon found myriad discrepancies in the New Georgia Project’s financial disclosures. Among those discrepancies include a mysterious half-million-dollar consulting payment to a charity run in part by the brother of former New Georgia Project CEO Nsé Ufot, who was later fired for undisclosed reasons.
The New Georgia Project also reported that it paid zero payroll taxes in 2020, an impossibility barring extensive criminal conduct. A spokesman for the Georgia attorney general declined to comment.
Georgia’s secretary of state opened its investigation into the charity amid a separate long-running case by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission alleging that the voter registration group illegally worked to elect Abrams during her failed 2018 gubernatorial bid.
During her previous campaign in 2018, she was able to receive an impressive amount of donations - an estimated total of over $100 million. This number set a new record for the state and the majority of the funds came from liberal donors outside of Georgia.
In spite of this success in fundraising, however, Abrams' campaign is still reportedly facing debt from vendors and contractors, remnants from that election season. This debt amounts to roughly $1 million and can be attributed to expenses such as advertising fees, staffing costs, and consulting services.
Brian Kemp was able to outspend her by approximately $20 million during the final weeks leading up to the election. Such a spending disparity between both candidates has been suggested as one of the reasons behind Stacey's loss in the race.
Given the current financial situation that resulted from her previous gubernatorial bid, it is uncertain whether or not Stacey will be able to make another attempt at running for governor again in 2022 without addressing these lingering debts first. Hopefully, she'll just learn her lesson and quit running and wasting people's money.