The Greater Jackson Arts Council is no more after Secretary of State Michael Watson shut it down last year.
GJAC did not submit its registration renewal in 2023 despite several notices from the Secretary of State. The organization also possessed a license to solicit contributions as a charity. GJAC did not even respond to a termination letter.
The Secretary of State's Charities Division issued a Cease and Desist order against the Greater Jackson Arts Council in April 2024. The order states:
12. Greater Jackson Arts Council does not have the option of not renewing its registration in Mississippi. Pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. §79-11-503(8), if a registered charitable organization for any reason opts not to renew its registration, it must upon the expiration of its registration, provide to the Secretary of State a final report. Greater Jackson Arts Council has failed to file a final report with the Division after its registration expired, and is therefore, in violation of this provision.
Mr. Watson dissolved the GJAC in July 2024.
Sources informed this website the Secretary of State and State Auditor are investigating the organization.
JJ reported in February 2024 the Council no longer had a working phone number nor a website. Earlier post.
It is quite a fall for what was once the premier arts organization in the Jackson metro area. Problems began when longtime Executive Director Janet Scott retired and the Board hired Silbrina Wright. Ms. Wright promptly ran the Council into the ground as she allegedly looted the company. JJ reported on April 25, 2023:
A whistleblower report accused Greater Jackson Arts Council Executive Director Silbrina Wright of maxing out the credit cards, misspending grants, and bullying behavior as GJAC finances were drained. Former Managing Director John Salem submitted the report to the Board of Directors on August 3, 2022, two days after Ms. Wright suspended him. She fired him on August 19.
Mr. Salem worked at the Council since 1994. He rose to Managing Director, second in the organization to only Executive Director, Silbrina Wright. Ms. Wright became Executive Director in January 2021. He accused the organization of firing him after he reported Executive Director mismanaged over $500,000 in a lawsuit filed March 10 in Rankin County Circuit Court.Earlier post and copy of complaint.
The memo makes several damning allegations against Ms. Wright:
* American Express Gold Card Account. The spending patterns on this account are disturbing and unsustainable. In June of this year alone, three payments (totalling $100,000) had to be issued to keep the account current and flexible for continued use. As of this writing, the balance is approximately $88,000. And a payment of approximately $58,000 was required on 8/1/2022 to keep the account in good standing. There is no discernable method of proper receipt management, explanation of charges, or rigorous monthly statement reconciliation.
Mr. Salem recommended freezing the account. Unfortunately, retired Executive Director Janet Scott opened the account in the mid-90's. The account had to stay in her name although "she is not personally responsible for any card activity." He recommended opening a new account under the name of current management.
* Community Bank/Surdna Foundation Thriving Cultures Project. $400,00 was deposited into a new account at Community Bank for the project. Mr. Salem reported "large amounts" were transferred from the project account to the general operating account for "other program spending, operations, and American Express payments (sounds familiar to Zoo followers). Other checks were written to pay Ms. Wright's daughter who served as an intern. Bank statements often were not properly reconciled.
Mr. Salem said on the account was overdrawn on August 1, 2022. He claims he was met with hostility when he questioned the overdraft:
My panic was met (via text and in-person) with gross belligerence and a vulgar verbal assault (“Get the fuck out of my face”). I was also accused of hostile behavior toward Silbrina, which is categorically untrue
The Surdna Foundation revoked the remaining $400,000 of the grant due to its um, alleged misallocation.
The Surdna Foundation revoked the remainder of the grant due to the um, alleged misallocation of the grant.
Ms. Wright also abused the American Express Card. The card was in Ms. Scott's name but that didn't stop the new Grand Poobah from running it up to over $100,000. It was finally paid down but Ms. Scott had to pay American Express $17,000.
31 comments:
Racist blacks ran Janet off, then ruined the GJAC. I do hope Shad White ROBUSTLY investigates, but it will, of course, be a "racist witch hunt". All is so juvenile and predictable.
B for a L
Bold choice to tell the Grant director who is funding your theft to "get the f*%$ out of her face" but hey...I cant blame them for trying.
Choke gave the finger to the EPA and got an award in his honor at Harvard.
We as a society have refused to punish the lazy and feral amony us and instead we made up awards to not only justify but to REWARD the incompetence.
I assume Ms. Wright is a Chowke friend
Silbrina Wright. Wasn't she involved in the Fine Arts Council mess in Madison?
You forgot to mention that the initial Surdna $$$ was first laundered through the same Lumumba family crony in Atlanta who is also managing Antard's defense fund.
Bottom line, GJAC was looted.
Correct
https://www.wlbt.com/story/12417049/former-charity-employee-in-court-on-embezzlement-charges/
Here's a link!
https://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2009/12/update-on-faim-case-assistants-husband.html
"The investigation reportedly began when then-employee Silbrina Wright notified the State about alleged financial mismanagement at FAIM. Ms. Wright was then fired by FAIM and prosecuted for embezzlement. She filed a wrongful termination suit (Copy of lawsuit) against FAIM and claimed she:
1. began working at FAIM in July of 2007 and her title was Director of Operations.
2. oversaw the bingo operation and the payroll for both FAIM and Boxcar.
3. notified the Mississippi Secretary of State's office and Bill Murphy of illegal activity at the Charity and that "only $7,500 of the charity's revenue was being spent on scholarships and programs when regulations required that a greater percentage of the non-profit's income be spent on such programs."
SILBRINA WAS A WHISTLEBLOWER? PHIL WAS A WHILTLEBLOWER?
It looks like the Mississippi free press was a big fan at one time -
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/leading-at-the-intersection-of-art-and-social-justice/
Why is she not in jail?
She would make a great chief of staff for Chowke. Oh wait, he won't need a chief of staff in prison.
Looting grant/non-profit money in Mississippi - it's what they do.
Where was the GJAC Board of Directors during all of this? For an organization to go off the rails to such a degree, there must have been a major commitment to do absolutely nothing by a fairly large number of people responsible for oversight.
Simply hilarious.
Don't expect any deep reporting and heavy listening from Donna Fraud Ladd on this. They fell for Wright hard and Ladd's outfit NEVER reports of anything they got wrong. NEVER.
@4:04 Where was the GJAC Board of Directors during all of this?
They were afraid of being called racist. HTH
Where are the criminal charges?
Great question! I did hear that Shad White’s office has put A LOT of investigation hours into this and that it was a complicated case. American Express is reportedly slow to cooperate with criminal investigations, and it took months to just get copies of the statements. The same with local banks. Apparently, there was bank fraud all over town. The auditor’s office makes a big deal whenever they catch a clerical worker padding work hours or pilfering petty cash, so hopefully they will proceed with theft so brazen and destructive.
Ladd is still around ?
I thought the new owners kicked her out of this goofy MFP platform a few months after they bought out her and Todd's JFP "empire" ?
Why hasn’t she been arrested?
Google it. You can't find them anywhere and they are not listed on Guidestar. No 990 to review.
Sure there is. Look harder.
She’s onto another caper working with small towns in getting grants to revise their image.
So, the enforcement timeline seems just a wee bit slow to me as a non-lawyer. The retaliation lawsuit filed in 3/2023 seems to have all the facts laid out for a quick state action, just wrapped up in a bow.
Would someone explain why it has taken 2 years and counting for action? For us regular folks working jobs we don't have time to go out and fight this at the ballot box but the state level people whose jobs involve this conduct perhaps should be moving a bit quicker before all the damage is done. It is going to be really hard to put all this back together with volunteer hours.
Silbrina is still out there blaming everything on the board president at the time. She say Julian Miller had account privileges on all the bank accounts and used to borrow money and pay it back or sometimes not pay it back. His money was always messed up. All that started after things went public in the news. The rest of the board never saw any financial statements. Silbrina and Julian just told people they were being prepared or that they had other things to talk about that day and the board just shrugged and went along with it! I heard Silbrina kept the board quiet with a lot of lunches and dinners and happy hour drinks and gifts.
My understanding is the former chairman was let go by Tougaloo and barred from the campus. Has a picture of him at the front gate.
It doesn't sound like the MS Secretary of State Charities Division has much enforcement muscle other than sending out termination letters. This organization ignored them for more than a year and then were finally shut down in an "official" capacity but no one tracked the money and many vendors went unpaid. What's the point of a board if this is allowed to go on? At the very least their names should be publicized, and they should be banned from service on other boards.
This is just another "typical" get use to it deal.
Sunday morning on the way to church we were stopped at Frontage Road/County Line Road by 8-10 JPD vehicles & motor cycles escorting 3 black SUV headed west at an unusually high rate of speed. Found out later it was Congressional Member Jasmine ? & her entourage on her way to speak at Tougaloo.
At one point, Silbrina and Julian actually shared an address, according to one of the “people-search” sites. So the president of the organization at the very least, at some point, flopped on her sofa and received his mail there. That’s very curious to me. Maybe they were in cahoots the whole time.
In my experience, Non Profits boards mostly comprised of folks who only want a free lunch and some glory.
Board members are often happy to ignore the corruption (which could lead to real work) and I have not seen any of them face real consequences, so why not?
They purposely only ask the surface questions and avoid the rest.
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