The former executive director of a Dutchess County charity that rescues horses has accused the private foundation and its president of diverting assets.
Anasazi Pence sued Akindale Rehabilitation and Land Conservation Fund, and its president, Keven Hamilton, March 14 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Although Pence accuses the charity of misusing assets, the gravamen of the complaint is that she was fired in retaliation for reporting evidence of illegality and fraud.
She “knew too much” and had openly confronted board members, the complaint states. She had “discovered numerous skeletons in Akindale’s closet.”
Hamilton did not reply to an email asking for his responses to the allegations.
Akindale is a 300-plus acre spread on Quaker Hill, also known as Billionaire’s Hill, in Pawling, that Albert J. Hettinger bequeathed in 2008.
The land and an endowment, according to the complaint and Internal Revenue Service records, were earmarked for rescuing thoroughbred horses that otherwise would be slaughtered for human consumption, retraining horses that could no longer race, and putting them up for adoption so as to provide safe havens.
Pence, of Croton-on-Hudson, worked for Akindale on and off as a barn worker, fundraiser and, from August 2022 to February 2024, the executive director.
Pence claims that none of the Akindale acreage has been transferred to the foundation and still remains in the Hettinger estate, “in direct contradiction to Hettinger’s charitable intent.” Yet, she says, foundation records filed with the IRS list land and buildings valued at about $9 million.
In 2022, Akindale sold a four-acre parcel and house to Hamilton, according to the complaint. The property had been appraised at $625,000 but was sold for $10. Yet, the arrangement was not disclosed to the IRS.
The private foundation also allegedly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes for property still held by the Hettinger estate, thus diverting charitable assets.
Pence accuses an accountant who served as the foundation’s treasurer, auditor and a trustee, while simultaneously serving as executor of the Hettinger estate, of conflicts of interest. But the complaint does not name him as a defendant or bring any specific charges against him.
Pence was fired on Feb. 4, 2024.
She accused Akindale and Hamilton of violating the state’s not-for-profit corporation law by failing to have a whistleblower policy that prohibits retaliation, and violating a state labor law that prohibits retaliation.
She is demanding $250,000 in lost wages and benefits, and unspecified punitive damages for intentional wrongdoing that “evinces a high degree of moral turpitude and .. wanton dishonesty.”
Pence says she believes that the Akindale board or directors plans to dissolve the foundation. The Rehab, Retrain, Rehome program has been discontinued, according to the complaint, fundraising has ceased, other employees have been fired, and horses are being euthanized.
