AAI Lies To Attorney General

The Board of Atheist Alliance International has been involved in very serious financial wrongdoing over many years, including the misappropriation of tens of thousands of dollars of other people’s money. This has resulted in their nonprofit status being revoked by the Attorney General of California. Earlier this year, the so-called Board made best efforts to have their nonprofit registration reinstated, but this process required them to address their financial wrongdoing. So they lied.

Personal Liability Of AAI Directors

Just a few days ago, after AAI failed in their efforts to have their nonprofit registration reinstated, the Attorney General wrote to the Directors of AAI explaining that they would now be personally liable if they are “involved in distributing or expending charitable assets” of the organisation. Once a nonprofit has its status revoked, “holding or soliciting assets for charitable purposes” is prohibited.

A full copy of this entire correspondence to the AAI Directors is available at the bottom of this page.

Fiscal Years Listed By Attorney General

There are several fiscal years listed in the Attorney General’s letter, which include 2017. This is the first year in the entire history of AAI that the Board refused to publish financial accounts to the members. Subsequently in 2018, that failed Board unlawfully changed the Bylaws such that they would no longer issue any financial reports at all. This is why their charitable status has now been revoked, and this is why the Attorney General is threatening the Directors with personal liability if they spend any of the cash that was raised for charitable purposes. In fact, this much has already been admitted by the current illegitimate AAI Board in their recently published ‘Disclosure Document‘.

There has still been no accounting for what the purported AAI Board spent all the money on during these periods.

Missing Financial Records

At the start of 2017, AAI had circa $45,000 cash on hand. The member groups who were then in proper democratic control those funds, raised those monies through their own subscriptions and donations. Those atheist groups have repeatedly asked the corrupt Board of AAI to account for how their money was spent. There has never been any effort whatsoever by the dishonest Directors on the current so-called Board to account for that spending. In fact, in their recent ‘Disclosure Document’ they stated that because they failed to retain adequate financial records, the best they could do was guess.

Directors on the current so-called AAI Board can recall that they decided not to report any financial accounts during 2017. They can recall that they failed to retain adequate financial records during this period. They can recall that they then improperly changed the Bylaws to remove the requirement to report any further financial accounts. They just can’t remember what they spent all the money on, so they haven’t been able to explain this to the member groups that actually raised those funds.

Mysterious Appearance Of New Records

As part of their ongoing effort to address the issues that the Attorney General of California has confronted them with, the purported AAI Board have recently come up with some new numbers. In February of this year, the current so-called Board of AAI told the Attorney General of California that their Program Expenses during 2017 were $24,000 exactly, while their total expenses were $35,300 exactly. For an organisation that has most of its expenditures in non-dollar currencies, all of the figures in this financial statement are reported as weirdly round numbers.

A full copy of this financial statement, which was rejected by the Attorney General of California, is provided at the bottom of this page. While the AAI Board has now been able to report that they spent $35,300 of other people’s money during 2017, they have still made no effort whatsoever to tell those other people what their money was spent on. But it gets worse.

Deliberate Lies To The Attorney General

In February of this year, the current so-called Board of AAI also attempted to account for their finances during 2018. A full copy of their financial statement for that year is available at the bottom of this page, and this was document rejected by the Attorney General of California too. An extract from that document is highlighted below.

Underneath the weirdly round figures for their expenditures during 2018, the current so-called Board of AAI have stated that during that year there were no financial transactions between the organisation and any Director. That is a lie. In fact, during that year AAI made entirely improper payments of thousands of pounds to John Richards, who was then a Director. These illicit payments were recently admitted to in the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’, and John Richards himself has also openly discussed receiving the money from AAI. California nonprofit law prohibits self-dealing.

It seems that the current so-called Board of AAI now knows that they spent exactly $35,300 during 2017. They also know that this was not their money to spend and that the members who were properly in democratic control of those funds have been asking what happened to this cash. Why have the so-called Directors on the purported AAI Board made no effort whatsoever to detail what this $35,300 was spent on? The answer seems to involve the recent threat from the Attorney General of California to make them each personal liable, and their ongoing efforts to have their nonprofit registration reinstated by lying to the Attorney General to cover up their improper self-dealing.

It is little wonder then that they have had no time to do anything else at all in literally years. Atheist Alliance International used to be an activist organisation. It seems that is difficult to find the time for activism when there is so much financial wrongdoing to cover up.

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• 2023-02-01 Financial Statement for 2017 to California Attorney General
• 2023-02-01 Financial Statement for 2017 to California Attorney General
• 2023-03-28 Notice to AAI Directors from California Attorney General