An organization founded by Democratic political activist Stacey Abrams nearly a decade ago is facing allegations of financial mismanagement as more than half a million dollars reportedly went missing after the sudden departure of the group’s former director late last year.
The New Georgia Project, an organization Abrams established in 2014 to enroll Black voters, played a pivotal role in Georgia’s dramatic swing from a Republican to a Democratic state during the 2020 election.
But in recent days, the organization has become entangled in a web of accusations after a six-month investigation by Politico uncovered massive financial irregularities in recent tax filings that revealed its former director, Nse Ufot, owes the advocacy group hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-work related expenses.
Ufot, a nationally recognized leader in voting rights hired by Abrams in 2014 before she rose to become the program director, was abruptly fired in 2022 and denies owing the nonprofit a dime.
The latest allegations come to light months after the New Georgia Project submitted 2021 financial disclosure forms to the IRS in January, two months late and three months following Ufot’s termination from the charity.
The disclosure shows a $533,846 consulting fee and a $67,500 grant were paid to the Black Make Initiative, a cryptic charity involving Ufot’s brother, Edima, who was also once employed by the New Georgia Project.
The Black Male Initiative, however, denied ever receiving the payment and provided its IRS financial records as proof, with $255,000 in donations in 2021 and no consulting income.
Before Ufot took the helm, Raphael Warnock ran the organization for more than two years, between 2017 and 2020, before he stepped down to run for U.S. Senate in Georgia.
That same year, the nonprofit raked in more than $36 million in donations while helping register 800,000 voters in Georgia, which helped catapult two Georgia Democrats to the…
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