New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said recently the former trustees of Manhattan-based charitable organization Homeland Foundation Inc. ”” one of whom reportedly maintains cross-border residences in New York and Connecticut ”” have agreed to the findings of his office”™s investigation into what Schneiderman termed, “the trustees”™ repeated failures to properly administer millions of dollars of charitable assets entrusted to their care.”
Schneiderman’s office determined the former trustees issued at least $4.25 million in grants exceeding what they were authorized to spend.
“When individuals charged with advancing a charitable mission instead treat a charity”™s assets as a personal piggybank, my office will hold them accountable,” Schneiderman said.
Schneiderman said many of the grants authorized by the trustees, including E. Lisk Wyckoff, Homeland”™s president during most of the period of the investigation, went to organizations closely connected to Wyckoff and his wife Elizabeth, “for example, $1.5 million to private schools attended by the Wyckoffs”™ children and $4.5 million to schools that Wyckoff himself had attended.”
The foundation”™s ex-president, Elizabeth Wyckoff agreed to taking some $700,000 for personal benefit, Schneiderman said. Reports place two of her homes in New York and Connecticut.
The trustees have agreed to repay Homeland a total $4.4 million to cover the misappropriated funds, the attorney general said.
The repayment includes $700,000 Elizabeth Wyckoff improperly took from Homeland exclusively for her personal benefit, according to Schneiderman, who noted she became Homeland”™s president in December 2012 upon the death of her husband, Lisk Wyckoff, who had been president since 1989.
In issuing the improper grants, the trustees failed to follow their obligation to make grants in any one year not to exceed 5 percent of the total value of Homeland”™s cash and investments, as required by the organization”™s charter.
No allegations were made that recipients of Homeland”™s donations committed any wrongdoing. Beneficiaries reportedly included Duke University and the University of Michigan Law School.
