UCCA's "Egregious Improprieties"
UCCA's "Egregious Improprieties"
Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Whistleblower
The following is another complaint submitted to the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau last summer. This is about the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, which this year celebrated the 80th anniversary of its founding. Forty years ago, a coalition of OUN-B organizations called the “Ukrainian Liberation Front” staged a “coup” in the UCCA on the eve of the 1980 U.S. elections. The Banderites have been “running the show” ever since.
1. Contact Information
Name: ███████
Address: ██████████
Phone number: ████████
2. Organization name: Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Inc.
Organization address: 203 Second Avenue, NY, NY 10003
Organization phone number: (212) 228-6840
Organization email: ucca@ucca.org
Individual Name — Position
Askold S. Lozynskyj — Legal Counselor
Andriy Futey — President
Myron Kolinsky — Treasurer
Stephan Kaczaraj — National Council Chair
Roksolana Stojko-Lozynskyj — External Affairs Chair
Larissa Lozynskyj-Kyj — Member at Large (UUARC)
Yuriy Symcyk — Member at Large (UAYA, Inc.)
Paul Bandriwsky — (UCCA Illinois)
Myroslava Rozdolsky — Member at Large (UAFF, Inc.)
Mykola Hryckowian — Member at Large (CUSUR)
Tamara Gallo-Olexy — Director
Andrij Dobriansky — Director
Lesia Orach — Assistant Director
Jaroslaw Fedun — Audit Committee Chair
Bohdan Harhaj — Audit Committee Member
All or some of the above may have been complicit herein as all have played a role in the matters involved herein.
3. Details of Complaint
For forty-five (45) years I have been a member of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Inc. (hereinafter the UCCA), a domestic New York State non-for-profit corporation. The UCCA is an IRS 501 c(3) tax exempt umbrella organization.
Throughout my involvement in the UCCA, I held the belief that it exists for the purpose of serving the interests of the Ukrainian community and dedicated my life to serving those interests. I was shocked and appalled to discover recently that this organization does not serve the interest of its members and that some of its leadership even openly and wrongfully accused other Ukrainian organization [sic] of the alleged mismanagement and improprieties.
In my opinion, the UCCA’s leadership has succumbed to improper conduct of business, numerous conflicts of interest an possibly even fraudulent filings of the required reports to the government. The UCCA owns the property located at 203 Second Avenue New York, New York 10003, which is the most valuable asset of the UCCA. For years it was benefitting from the privilege of a Property Tax Exemption. This privilege was lost several years ago due to some negligent acts of the UCCA administration office. It was subsequently renewed and I am concerned with the irregularities that took place in the renewal process.
The UCCA applied for a new Property Tax Exemption privilege as New York domiciled corporation when in fact it is registered in the state of New Jersey.
Reviewing the UCCA’s filed 990’s of past several years raised further concerns. I found a way to finally access the financial reports (at least partially) that were provided by office employees instead of a treasurer of UCCA or an authorized board member. Incidentally, I would like to point out that the UCCA didn’t have a treasurer in place for several years. I insisted to the board on several occasions that it must find a candidate to fill the treasurer’s position. The board ignored my requests. The 990’s that have been filed were at least inaccurate and possibly even fraudulent.
Prior to making my decision to file this complaint, for several years I have attempted without success to obtain financial statements of the UCCA. My main concern was the UCCA’s payroll, which that exceeded $300,000 and, in my opinion, was excessive in light of the extremely low amount of revenues.
Upon investigating through various channels, I discovered that actually more than $300,000 were expended in salaries alone. This excessive expense was further aggravated by the fact that the salaries were paid to the President of the UCCA and to the Office Director, both positions occupied by the same person. There was a reciprocal situation with the director of UNIS (Ukrainian National Information Service) at our office located in Washington, DC. Furthermore, no one can assure that the minutes of any of the UCCA’s board meetings reflect official decisions authorizing those compensations and their amounts.
Because of these irregularities and fraudulent activities that have been occurring for years, I feel that it is my fiduciary duty, as a member of the UCCA, to inform the New York State Department of Law Charities Bureau and Attorney General of the State of New York.
I would like to add that the Auditing Committee had conducted the incomplete and incompetent audit that resulted in a cover-up of the irregularities and fraudulent activities. At the recent XXII Convention of the UCCA, that took place on September 23-25, 2016, since the audit report was conducted improperly, it was decided to present no report to the Convention.
I realize now that the UCCA keep repeating many conflict of interest situations especially within the board of directors. Having family members and/or relatives on the board of directors, having board members receiving financial gains from services (such as printing books, programs, brochures, materials and so on) provided at unfair price without receiving at minimum 2 bids — these are just a few examples of the conflict of interest that exists within the UCCA. Another example is the Investment Committee having family members consulting and running investments.
In view of my life-long and devoted membership in the UCCA, I could not ignore these egregious improprieties.
I am asking the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York and the New York State Department of Law Charities Bureau to investigate all matters noted herein, including but not limited to excessive spending, fraudulent reporting and possible trading favors.
…
Respectfully submitted,
███████ — UCCA Member
July 26, 2019
Two months and two days later, an anonymous, self-described son of “pioneers” of the organized Ukrainian American community in New York City submitted a lengthy complaint to the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau regarding the Ukrainian American Freedom Foundation, which he described as an OUN-B front.