NEW: An Ohio NGO led by a Somali-American community leader received over $1 million in gov. grants for a program to give jobs and housing to ex-convict immigrants getting out of prison.
It has the shadiest financial disclosures I've ever seen🧵...
capitalresearch.org/article/suspic…
In 2023, a group called the UNIK Foundation received a $1.2 million grant for the "New American Anti-Recidivism Program" that would basically give jobs, counselling, and housing to immigrants currently serving prison time in the Columbus area.
usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON…
Most NGO's have an experienced board of directors, audits, accountants, and legal teams.
The UNIK Foundation has none of those. It has never used any accounts or undergone an audit, it has never reported paying any legal bills, and it has just one board member: Dr. Hanad Duale
The books are FILLED with anomalies.
For example: In 2024 $346k was spent on "other expenses" and the section that is supposed to describe what "other expenses" means just says "other expenses" and "operation cost"
No vendors or independent contractors are named at all.
Another example:
The UNIK Foundation is a private foundation (HIGHLY unusual for NGOs) required to publicly disclose all donors.
Records show HHS granted UNIK $800k in 2023-24, but their tax forms only disclose a $50,000 grant from Columbus and $754k in revenue.
Notably, spending $750,000 in federal funds during a fiscal year automatically triggers an audit for any nonprofit.
By not reporting, and seemingly under-reporting, federal funding the UNIK Foundation is staying just shy of that threshold.
Despite his self-described 80 hr. work week (for which he pays himself $139k) Dr. Duale has also found the time to open two for-profit businesses: UNIK Logistiks and UNIK Housing.
In 2023, UNIK Logistiks got $810,000 is Small Business Administration loans.
They're a trucking company that provides employment to ex-cons and their website (which is full of stock photos) claims to have over 7,000 CDL drivers.
DOT records show they have 4...
UNIK Housing's website (also full of dozens of stock photos) says they provide half-way housing for addicts getting out of prison.
In other words, these for-profit companies owned by the UNIK Foundation's sole board member do exactly the things UNIK is supposed to do itself.
With this knowledge in mind, the UNIK Foundation's vague disclosures about "other expenses" look even MORE suspicious.
It seems possible that the vague tax forms are concealing self-dealing to the companies owned by the Foundation's one-man leadership and accounting team.
There are dozens of questions still to be answered, but the main one I have is this: which HHS employee approved a seven-figure grant to a group with no accountants, lawyers, or audits and a one-person board of directors, and have they been fired yet?
The same goes for the city of Columbus and the State of Ohio, both of which has given this groups over $100k
Who is doing the vetting here? Even if these financial discrepancies are all honest mistakes, the group is basically one giant red flag.
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