California: Dem Rep. T.J. Cox Wants ‘Thank You’ For Nonprofit Hit By Scathing Audit – IOTW Report

California: Dem Rep. T.J. Cox Wants ‘Thank You’ For Nonprofit Hit By Scathing Audit

WFB: California Democratic representative T.J. Cox broke several weeks of silence on an audit from February that blasted a nonprofit for which he served as treasurer, with the congressman seemingly irritated when suggesting there’s been a lack of gratitude for what the nonprofit has done.

Cox’s victory last November over incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao wasn’t decided until weeks after Election Day, and was won by less than a thousand votes, suggesting his hold on the seat is likely tenuous in a district in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

An interview on local television station KSEE that aired over the weekend comes as the largest paper in his congressional district has published a string of articles raising questions about some of the congressman’s business dealings, taxes, and financial disclosures.

The latest of those articles, published early Tuesday morning by the McClatchy-owned Fresno Bee, said Cox “has a complicated financial history that includes multiple tax liens and a delinquent debt that caused the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office to warn him that it could seize his property.”

The nonprofit under scrutiny, the Central Valley Community Sports Foundation (CVCSF) was begun in 2015 by local developer Terance Frazier, primarily to run a city sports park that has had a troubled history. Cox was the foundation’s treasurer from its inception.

Under the arrangement between the CVCSF and the city, the nonprofit pledged $2.7 million in upgrades to the outdoor sports park and would take over the yearly management. The city would pay the CVCSF $150,000 per year for the management, slightly less than what the government had been allocating in their own budget.

However, last August, Frazier approached the city to increase its financial contribution, which then triggered a clause in the contract allowing the city to perform an audit, and a Bee article shortly after raised questions about how much investment had actually occurred.

“During the initial review, Internal Audit determined that CVCSF’s internal controls were deficient to nonexistent,” one of the findings read. Other conclusions by the audit team found the nonprofit’s checkbook was not balanced correctly, contracts were sometimes made verbally, and multiple payments had been made to “corporate officers” of the nonprofit that were questionable.

“In February 2017, two Corporate Officers of CVCSF withdrew $145,140.76 and $75,000 respectively as ‘loan repayments,'” it noted. “However, these withdrawals were made before there was evidence that the individuals had provided any such loans to the non-profit.”

It’s not clear if Cox was one of the corporate officers mentioned.

Cox had not provided substantive comment about the audit to media requests from multiple outlets including the Washington Free Beacon, but finally addressed the issues with KSEE in an interview that aired Sunday.

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