Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit against two Minneapolis nonprofits and their founders for what his office described as a “brazen and systematic abuse” of their tax-exempt status.
Les Jolies Petites School of Dance and Real Believers Faith Center and their founders, Sharon and Larry Cook, are accused of using the organizations as their “personal piggy banks,” misusing $2 million in assets for their own enrichment while failing to declare a legitimate purpose for their spending.
Also named in the lawsuit are officers of those organizations who prosecutors say also benefitted from Les Jolies and Real Believers’ “rampant misuse of nonprofit assets”: Danyale Potts, Emily Neuhaus, Risheka Remus, Makada Williams and Sunsearay Washington…