5 ms·
Looking at the only two members of “Ethos Capital” (ironic name) 1) CEO: A Harvard MBA with typical PE experience 2) “Chief purpose officer” - Former SVP at I
by et2o 7y ago
Looking at the only two members of “Ethos Capital” (ironic name)
1) CEO: A Harvard MBA with typical PE experience
2) “Chief purpose officer” - Former SVP at ICANN responsible for corporate outreach.
The structure of this stinks. I’d be not at all surprised to learn of some kind of back channel dealing.
Edit: The former (2016) CEO of ICANN registered ethoscapital.com? After ICANN he went to the former PE firm of (1) above. He is certainly involved in this now, even if not named.
Unbelievable. This heist was planned for years with money raised specifically for it. I can’t believe this is legal.
- bhickey 7y ago> I can’t believe this is legal. I doubt that it is. The directors of a non-profit can't wake up one morning and decided to pillage the org's resources for their benefit. They must transact their business at arm's length. Chehadé buys Donuts from Nevett, Nevett turns around and sells dot-org to Chehadé's PE firm. This looks like a kickback scheme. PIR is headquartered in Virginia, we should be calling and writing to the Attorney General there.
- bhickey 7y agoI spoke with the operator at the AG's office. This is regulated through the VA Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services. I was instructed to file an ordinary consumer complaint with VDACS and it will get escalated as appropriate.
- nojvek 7y agoThank you for doing your part as a citizen. We can rage all we want on HN but you’re actually showing us how to make a difference by going through the proper channels.
- kelnos 7y agoAny idea how to do this? I googled "VA Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services consumer complaint", which took me to https://www.oag.state.va.us/consumer-protection/index.php/file-a-complaint https://www.oag.state.va.us/consumer-protection/index.php/fi... -- but that looks like the AG's office.
- brylie 7y agoPeehaps use this form? http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/doc/complaint.docx http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/doc/complaint.docx
- AJ007 7y agoCouldn’t this involve the IRS as well?
- bhickey 7y agoYes, you can report it via Form 13909 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf). What would be great is if someone at PIR turned whistleblower. Given the size of the transaction the reward money could be in the millions.
- et2o 7y agoGreat thought. Seems a clear case of a nonprofit being used for commercial gain.
- bhickey 7y agoNon-profits can operate commercially as long as that business is consistent with their charitable business. I ran a non-profit science fiction magazine. We sold magazines at a profit, or at least tried to. The problem here is that the leadership of PIR transferred their assets in a way that appears to enrich the same.
- jlokier 7y agoThey can, so long as commercially means operating at a surplus (keeping the profit to use later) rather than distributing profits (giving out the profit). (Details may be incorrect. IANAL.)
- im3w1l 7y ago2016, that's the same year as US gave up control over ICANN to international stakeholders...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]