Ward Connerly Being Investigated by IRS for Mismanaging Funds

Ward Connerly, the man that's campaigned agaisnt affirmative action across the country, is being accused of mismanaging and exploiting donations made by fellow conservatives for his own benefit.

By Jorge Rivas Jan 18, 2012

Ward Connerly, the man that’s campaigned agaisnt affirmative action across the country, is being accused of mismanaging and exploiting donations made by fellow conservatives for his own benefit. The American Civil Rights Institute that was founded by Connerly is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and by the attorney general of California, according to the NY Times.

Connerly has faced similar accusation before but this time the detailed allegations come from Jennifer Gratz, the named plaintiff in a landmark 2003 Supreme Court case that struck down a race-based admissions policy at the University of Michigan.

"I’m sorry to hear this because I’m a great admirer of both of them," Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, which also opposes affirmative action, told the NY Times. "She is a courageous, smart person — and Ward is also a courageous, smart person."

Clegg went on to say there were "few people who can do or would do what he does," adding that it is hard to set a salary on a job that requires enduring racially charged name-calling from fellow blacks.

According to Times, the most recent tax filings from the American Civil Rights Institute showed Connerly’s annual salary reached $1.5 million, more than half the institute’s revenue.

Below is a copy of a letter sent to the board of Ward Connerly’s group, the American Civil Rights Institute, last September by a lawyer for Jennifer Gratz. The letter was obtained by The New York Times.