NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence has not disclosed any financial information about its operations since 2016. They have refused to real their total assets on hand, or their revenue and expenses over the past 5 years. They have refused to answer any questions about the financial malfeasance that caused the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the Fund’s tax-exempt status more than six months ago.
The Fund has kept the revocation secret since at least August 2021, when it was posted on the IRS website. Talk of the Sound exposed The Fund’s coverup last week: IRS Revokes Non-Profit Status of The New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence.
The Board of The Fund is scheduled to meet in secret on Wednesday at City Hall.
While nothing is certain, given how little is known about their fundraising or spending since 2016, it is difficult not see the stonewalling as a sign that The Fund has something to hide.
In particular, there appears to be a concerted effort to protect the recently departed Executive Director Sabrina Tobak.
Those involved with the mess at the Fund include every School Superintendent since 2017 (Dr. Brian Osborne, Magda Parvey, Dr. Laura Feijóo, Dr. Alex Marrero and Jonathan Raymond), every School Board President since 2017 (Lianne Merchant, Rachel Relkin, Jeffrey Hastie, Amy Moselhi and Julia Muggia-Ochs), and every New Rochelle High School Principal since 2017 (Reggie Richardson, Joseph Starvaggi, Steve Goldberg and Dagoberto Artiles). Other names include Jasmine Rice (wife of Judge Jared Rice, former City Council Member), Judge Matt Costa, Council Member Albert Tarantino, Richard Relkin (husband of Rachel Relkin), Fund founders Linda Kelly and Deidre Polow, Steve Silverman, Cassandra Campbell, current Treasurer Tom Livaccari, current Secretary Meredith A. Hilton, School Board Member Margaret Bavosa, Iliana Fleischman, Laurie Forkas, LaThell Sebastian-Smith, and Nadine Wallace. A complete list is not possible because The Fund failed to list all board members, officers, employees, and consultants on their 990 tax forms.
The IRS requires that all tax-exempt organizations file an annual information return or notice with the IRS. Form 990-series returns or notices are due every year by November 15th. Organizations who fail to file a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years will have their federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.
The Fund’s leadership had known about the problems for months and kept it a secret. According to the IRS website, the Revocation Date was May 15, 2021. The IRS added The Fund to its non-profit revocation list on August 9, 2021.
Despite the revocation of its non-profit status, The Fund continued to promote itself as a non-profit organization until our article last week, after which they edited their Facebook profile and Twitter profile (but not their website). The Fund had still not published its statement, its financial issues.
Talk of the Sound reached out to The Fund Chairperson Jonathan Stark and Interim Executive Director Stephanie Tomei with a set of questions. Tomei deferred to Stark, who responded with a vaguely worded statement that appeared to attribute the failure to file tax forms in 2018, 2019 (along with 2020) to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During this challenging time, as soon as we became aware of the issue, we began measures to resolve the matter expeditiously,” said Stark.
Questions asked of The Fund but not answered:
- Who was responsible for filing the 990s, and why was that not done?
- What is the date the fund’s not-profit status was revoked?
- What is the date the fund received notice of revocation?
- Did the fund receive any money after that?
- Is the current status that the fund does not have non-profit status?
- How did this impact the pancake breakfast in 2021?
- Can you provide a list of board members during the period where 990s were not filed, along with any officer titles? I recall there was an executive director or someone in that sort of role who is/was a school district employee at NRHS.
- The website indicates the involvement of Ingerman Smith. Do they provide legal services to the Fund? Do those services cover the period when 990s were not filed?
- Will you please provide the 990s for 2017, 2018, 2019, and (if completed) 2020? If not, please provide the top-line numbers for each of those years: total revenue and expenses and total assets and liabilities.
- Do you intend to remove or unpublish past solicitations and statements where The Fund is represented as a non-profit?
- Anything else you care to add?
The available 990s raise numerous questions, but we intend to do a follow-up once the 990s for 2017, 2018 and 2019 are made available.
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Seriously? Cox should look into him. Let’s see how transparent he is.
How can so many high profile actors be attached to such malfeasance, and the only ramification is a change in status? This is criminal and immoral.
Will anyone be charged criminally?
There are MORE people involved but as none of the 990s from 2015, 2016, 2017 list all of the board members or employees or consultants or officers and that there are no 990s for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 the list is incomplete.
This SNAFU screams out to a forensic accounting.
Some charities and funds like Daniel Bonnet’s are accounted for and transparent.
I am unaware that Daniel Bonnet has a charity or fund. What is it?