New documents shed light on missing money following Enrichmond Foundation collapse

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Becky Lakin’s The Giving Wall is yet another nonprofit left broke after The Enrichmond Foundation decided to call it quits.

“Mainly, it’s hard because that $27,000 is monies that we now cannot use to meet those urgent financial needs of neighbors,” said Lakin.

Now those with the Enrichmond Accountability Project have their hands on more than 300 pages of financial documents and other information through a Freedom of Information Act request.

NBC12 learned authorities were inspecting those files Thursday.

“Words like fraud and embezzlement were kind of passing through our heads while we were reading it, and a lot of the things I saw I thought either I’m bad at finance or this is super illegal what’s happening here,” said Mac Wood, Friends of Pump House.

It’s the same information, we’re told, the FBI and Virginia Attorney General’s Office have as well. The attorney general’s office confirms it’s investigating, while the FBI isn’t commenting at the moment.

Mac Wood, with Friends of Pump House and Dave Polhmann, with Richmond Tree Stewards, went through the Enrichmond documents.

NBC12 is told some of the missing $200,000 had to be used on expenses to keep the foundation afloat, including payroll.

“I believe they were playing with public money, and their documents should be made public record,” said Wood.

Members of the Enrichmond Accountability Project hope to make redacted versions of those business records available for the public to view.

In total, 86 nonprofits were left penniless after the board voted to dissolve last summer, with some losing 10′s of thousands.

“We need a fiscal sponsor in Richmond. This is one of the biggest pieces of the narrative that’s often under-told,” said Lakin.

The SCC says Enrichmond has not filed paperwork to dissolve, adding the foundation has an inactive status for failing to file an annual report and pay an annual registration fee.

And since dissolving, no one from the foundation has spoken publicly.

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