It has been a year since the wildfires in southern California and the almost total lack of rebuilding is not the only related scandal.
Back in July, an independent journalist looked into the celebrity-filled ‘FireAid’ concert and found that none of the victims of the fire had received any funds, despite claims from participants in the event that aid would go directly to the victims.
What she found was that the money had gone to a number of non-profit organizations, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with disaster recovery.
Republicans who control the House Judiciary Committee investigated and have just released their findings. It’s not good.
CBS News reports:
House Republicans release report on FireAid fund distribution
Organizers of last January’s FireAid benefit concert are once again facing accusations that the $100 million in donations did not directly help victims of the Los Angeles fires, after House Republicans published findings from their investigation on Tuesday.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin), who helped launch the investigation, claimed the “report highlights where the funds were not used in the way that the donors would likely have wanted them to be used.”
In its report, the House Judiciary Committee stated money went to “left-leaning pet projects, illegal aliens, and the administrative costs related to running non-profit organizations.”
“You had examples of funds used for voter outreach efforts, towards political advocacy groups, towards podcasters, fungus planting, those examples are pretty troubling,” Kiley said. “I do want to be clear, there were many organizations that got funds, nonprofits that are certainly very worthy nonprofits.”
FireAid organizers denied the claims made in the report. They stood by their original promise that all money raised during the concert would go to well-known, vetted nonprofits serving residents of Altadena, Pasadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
The report is broken down into sections that include the following headings:
– $100,000 of FireAid donations went to promote voter participation.
– $550,000 of FireAid donations went to groups involved in political advocacy.
– An unknown amount of money from FireAid donations went towards illegal aliens.
– $100,000 in FireAid donations was sent to podcasters.
– Over $500,000 of FireAid donations were used to pay bonuses, salaries, and consultants for non-profit organizations.
This is an excerpt from the report’s conclusion:
FireAid advertised that all donations raised during its benefit concert would go directly to victims of the California wildfires. Unfortunately, this was not the case.55 Instead, money went towards left-leaning pet projects, illegal aliens, and the administrative costs related to running non-profit organizations. FireAid still has $25 million in donated funds to disperse.56 It is critical that the remaining money—donations intended to help Californians in need—be allocated directly to victims of the California wildfires.
Will the actual victims of the fires ever see any of this money that was raised in their names? They are certainly not getting any help rebuilding from the political leadership in California.
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