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☆ Right-Wing Nonprofit Paid Millions to Companies With Ties to Insiders
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( David A. Fahrenthold | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Conservative Partnership Institute, a nonprofit whose funding skyrocketed after it became a nerve center for President Donald J. Trump’s allies in Washington, has paid at least $3.2 million since the start of 2021 to corporations led by its own leaders or their relatives, records show. In its most recent tax filings, the nonprofit’s three highest-paid contractors were all connected to insiders. One was led by the institute’s president, Edward Corrigan, and another by its chief operating officer. At a third contractor, the board members included the group’s senior legal fellow Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who supported Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Edward Corrigan, Cleta Mitchell Organizations: Conservative Partnership Institute Locations: Washington

☆ The Many Ways Men’s Sweet 16 Players Are Being Paid
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( David A. Fahrenthold | Billy Witz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

$500 signed basketball Branded vodka and coffee “Buzzer beater” quesadillaThe Many Ways Men’s Sweet 16 Players Are Being PaidThis year’s N.C.A.A. basketball tournament is being played amid a revolutionary change in college sports: The best players are now openly recruited, retained and rewarded with cash. — under pressure from the Justice Department and state legislatures — allowed players to be paid for the use of their “name, image and likeness.” The idea was to let players endorse shoes or sports drinks. (The average men’s basketball player with a collective contract at a top school is paid $63,450, according to Opendorse, a company that processes payments to players from collectives. Every team in the men’s Sweet Sixteen has been touched by this change, which has brought windfalls to players but instability to the college game.

Persons: —, ” —, windfalls Organizations: Justice Department

☆ Elon Musk Has a Giant Charity. Its Money Stays Close to Home.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( David A. Fahrenthold | Ryan Mac | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Before March 2021, Elon Musk’s charitable foundation had never announced any donations to Cameron County, an impoverished region at the southern tip of Texas that is home to his SpaceX launch site and local officials who help regulate it. Then, at 8:05 one morning that month, a SpaceX rocket blew up, showering the area with a rain of twisted metal. The Musk Foundation began giving at 9:27 a.m. local time.

Persons: Elon Organizations: SpaceX, Musk Foundation Locations: Cameron County, Texas

The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed suit on Wednesday against the N.C.A.A., saying the body that regulates college athletics has no right to block the increasingly common practice of wealthy boosters paying to attract top recruits. The suit was filed a day after the disclosure that the N.C.A.A. was investigating the University of Tennessee’s football program for recruiting violations involving a donor group that arranges to pay athletes. The driving force behind that change has been donor collectives, which are groups of alumni and other boosters who donate money that is used to compensate top athletes, sometimes in amounts approaching professional levels. In effect, the collectives pay salaries disguised as endorsements, and they now play a central role in the process of wooing players in football, basketball and other sports.

Organizations: University of Tennessee’s Locations: Tennessee, Virginia

The N.C.A.A. Having the booster group pay for the trip by the quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, would be a violation of N.C.A.A. The inquiry comes after the N.C.A.A. penalized Tennessee for different recruiting violations and signals the N.C.A.A.’s growing concern about the scale and influence of the money being injected into college sports by donor collectives. News of the investigation into Tennessee’s athletic program was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

Persons: —, Nico Iamaleava Organizations: University of Tennessee’s, Sports Illustrated Locations: Tennessee

The key to recruiting top college football players these days is not just a lavish training facility or a storied coach. The rapid rise of big-dollar payments to student-athletes from so-called donor collectives has emerged as one of the biggest issues in college sports, transforming how players are recruited and encouraging a form of free agency for those looking to transfer. And because many of the groups are set up as charities or with charitable arms that make donations tax-deductible, they are drawing scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. two years ago to allow payments to student-athletes. While in theory they operate independently of athletic programs, collectives have become deeply embedded in the economics of college sports, offering vast supplements to the scholarships that schools provide.

Organizations: Internal Revenue Service

The protest in London’s bustling Chinatown brought together a variety of activist groups to oppose a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. So it was peculiar when a street brawl broke out among mostly ethnic Chinese demonstrators. Witnesses said the fight, in November 2021, started when men aligned with the event’s organizers, including a group called No Cold War, attacked activists supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong. In fact, a New York Times investigation found, it is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes.

Persons: Witnesses, Neville Roy Singham Organizations: New York Times Locations: London’s, Chinatown, Hong Kong, China, American

In 2017, with Mr. Connors’ help, Mr. Maichle started his own company, Precision Compliance Consulting. ‘Boss Man’Mr. Connors, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Maichle were all active in college conservative politics in Wisconsin about 15 years ago, when Mr. Connors was the leader of campus Republicans at Marquette University. Of that, about $102,000 went to Campaign Now, the firm started by Mr. Connors, and another $112,000 to companies where Mr. Connors, Mr. Maichle or Mr. Lewis was either the owner or a partner, tax records show. Most of the money — more than $4.4 million — went to fund-raising companies via tens of thousands of small payments. Most of the money — more than $4.4 million — went to fund-raising companies via tens of thousands of small payments.

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