Fox News is reporting that a former fundraiser for Barack Obama repeatedly misused funds from his non-profit organization for both political and personal use before the organization went bankrupt.
Dixon Slingerland is accused of taking the funds from the California-based non-profit, the Youth Policy Institute, and spending them on a “lavish” lifestyle and “partisan political contributions” before the YPI filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
In the filing, YPI asked Slingerland to repay approximately $1.7 million back, which the organization says is an amount that was gradually stolen over the course of five years. He worked for YPI for 23 years and earned roughly $400,000 per year before he was fired from the organization.
Slingerland’s fundraising efforts have included the 2013 campaign of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a broad donation to Democratic congressional candidates in 2018, and raising $743,000 for Barack Obama between both the 2008 and 2012 election cycles.
Slingerland called the accusations “extremely misleading,” and claimed that he has “made several attempts to meet with YPI leadership to resolve any and all issues,” but that “YPI has refused to engage in discussions” regarding the allegations. He did admit to “a handful of expenditures mistakenly made” with his business credit card at YPI, but did not elaborate further.