The local newspapers and TV stations aren't talking about Betty Cone and Grassroots Productions Limited tax evasion scandal anymore. The moderator(s) at the Facebook group, Progress For Greensboro deleted all threads concerning the subject. The local blogosphere has pretty much quit talking about it and for the most part I'm the last one talking about the subject. Call it an obsession if you like but there are reasons the rest of Greensboro should be talking about it still.
For starters: This wasn't a simple issue of forgetting to file income taxes. Betty Cone pretty much admitted that when she was quoted in the News & Record as saying, “I didn’t make any big announcement. I just took the (nonprofit status) information off of our forms and moved ahead."
The next reason is that Greensboro tax dollars are involved.
Tax deductible donations are involved.
It's all too apparent the intent was to convert the non profit to a for profit corporation and it may be that Betty Cone is taking the fall for someone else's actions.
Are you aware that the members of the Board of directors of Grassroots Productions Limited could be made to reach into their own pockets to pay back the 3 years of donations that have already been spent by Grassroots? Ever heard of a bank loaning money to a non profit to pay off bad debt? Me neither.
Speaking of boards of directors, while my investigation into the membership of the Grassroots Productions Limited Board Of Directors turned up nothing, Betty Cone does sit on the boards of many of Greensboro's other prominent and powerful non profits and foundations. And that leads me to wonder, With all the same people on all these different boards could it be possible that all these non profits and foundations suffer the same hidden woes as Grassroots Productions Limited? Or worse?
And that, my friends, is why we shouldn't let this scandal simply go away.
More here for those who want to get up to speed.
