WP
LOS ANGELES - The Minuteman Project, an anti-illegal-immigrant organization that has monitored the southern border, is embroiled in a nasty legal fight over accusations of financial improprieties that has splintered the group and will likely sideline it during the busiest time of the year for border crossing.
Former leaders of the Minuteman Project accuse founder Jim Gilchrist, 58, of using $300,000 of the group's money to support his pet causes, including promoting a book he co-authored and funding an unsuccessful run for Congress in a 2005 special election. Last month, saying they are the group's board of directors, they took over the Minuteman Project Web site and bank accounts, and fired Gilchrist as president.
Gilchrist fired back with a lawsuit accusing his former associates of defamation. He maintains they have no standing to fire him from the California-based organization. He also accuses them of hacking into the Minuteman Project's Web site, stealing a donor database and pilfering his personal stationery, all of which the organization relies on to raise funds.
"This crisis has put us in a tailspin," Gilchrist said in an interview. The organization had planned to mobilize members in coming weeks when Congress again takes up immigration legislation, Gilchrist said, but it has canceled its plans because he is busy dealing with legal issues.
The dispute centers on $750,000 in donations raised for the Minuteman Project by HSP Direct, a now-defunct Herndon, Va., direct-mail firm hired by Gilchrist. After the company deducted expenses, the project received about $100,000.
Deborah Courtney, a Minuteman Project employee until last month, said the group should have received about $300,000 more. She charges that Gilchrist spent the money on his own fund-raising activities or secreted it in bank accounts that the group members could not access......."
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