Georgia’s secretary of state has opened an investigation into "financial irregularities" surrounding the New Georgia Project, a voting-rights charity founded by Stacey Abrams, individuals familiar with the matter told the Washington Free Beacon.
The investigation comes after several Free Beacon reports on the alleged financial mismanagement by former New Georgia Project executives. Accounting and legal experts have raised questions about the legality of the New Georgia Project’s latest tax filings. As investigations get underway, authorities will issue subpoenas to parties affiliated with the New Georgia Project, a source with knowledge of the state’s actions said.
A spokesman for the Georgia secretary of state confirmed the investigation but declined to comment further. The New Georgia Project did not respond to a request for comment.
Founded by Abrams in 2013, the New Georgia Project quickly rose to become one of the nation’s leading voter registration groups. Together the New Georgia Project and its affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund raised a combined $54.7 million since 2020.
The Free Beacon found myriad discrepancies in the New Georgia Project’s financial disclosures. Among those discrepancies include a mysterious half-million-dollar consulting payment to a charity run in part by the brother of former New Georgia Project CEO Nsé Ufot, who was later fired for undisclosed reasons.
The New Georgia Project also reported that it paid zero payroll taxes in 2020, an impossibility barring extensive criminal conduct. A spokesman for the Georgia attorney general declined to comment.
Georgia’s secretary of state opened its investigation into the charity amid a separate long-running case by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission alleging that the voter registration group illegally worked to elect Abrams during her failed 2018 gubernatorial bid.
Abrams, who lost her second gubernatorial bid by 7.5 points in November, said in January that she will "likely run again." Abrams raised more than $100 million during her last campaign, largely from liberal donors outside of Georgia. Despite that exorbitant sum, Abrams’s campaign owes more than $1 million to vendors, according to a report from Axios.