New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a petition to dissolve the Community Resource Collaborative for misusing government funds intended to support local organizations that provide services to Rochester-area communities.
CRC, created in 2021 by Tina Paradiso, was engaged in November 2022 by Monroe County to act as a fiscal sponsor on behalf of the Neighborhood Collaborative Project, a collaboration of 12 local organizations that were due to receive portions of over $7.1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds over a four-year period ending in 2026.
However, in 2023 — the first year of the agreement — CRC failed to deliver nearly $244,000 of the $1,067,971 it received to those local organizations while its executives used tens of thousands of dollars to pay for personal expenses, according to a March audit by EFPR Group conducted on behalf of Monroe County.
Through the new petition filed Monday, James is seeking to dissolve the organization for violating New York’s nonprofit corporation laws, to appoint a receiver to liquidate CRC’s assets, and use those funds to reimburse the nonprofits that are owed money.
“Vulnerable communities in the Rochester area were relying on financial support from the Community Resource Collaborative, but they only saw a fraction of what they were promised,” James says. “The CRC’s executives cheated local organizations that provide essential services to the needy to pay for their personal luxuries instead.”
The March audit found that, among other things, CRC mingled funding from a variety of sources into three bank accounts, misused its initial payment, and overall lacked financial oversight and internal controls.
Credit cards initially issued to Paradiso, Anthony Hall, and Janelle Snow were charged with $35,000 in rent and hotel costs, $28,000 in transportation charges (including $26,000 in Uber fees), approximately $18,000 in Amazon charges, and thousands of dollars in additional misused funds, including money that went to paying Hall and Paradiso both directly and — in just Paradiso’s case — through two other companies she owned.
“It does appear that Ms. Paradiso had absolute control over the financial aspects of the Organization, and it is unclear if the state and availability of the underlying accounting records were a result of inexperience and disorganization, or an intentional effort to obfuscate the ultimate use of funding received from various sources over the course of the period of review,” wrote the EFPR Group’s CPAs in their forensic review.
However, the audit also found that CRC is likely insolvent and burdened with outstanding loan balances probably “in excess of $150,000,” though the auditors lacked documentation for these loans. The attorney general’s office did not respond to the Rochester Beacon’s questions about how this would impact reimbursements to the community groups after CRC’s potential liquidation.
In addition to the county, the organizations that are due money from CRC are ABC Action Front Center, Baden Street Counseling and Support Center, Barakah Muslim Charities, Beyond the Sanctuary, Cameron Community, Father Tracy Advocacy Center, Lyell Avenue Business Association, SWAN at Montgomery Center, and The Peoples’ Pantry.
C3 Consultancy Services, MC Collaborative, and On the Ground Research — all for-profits — were also found by the audit to be due money from CRC, but the attorney general’s petition said their claims are “subject to disqualification on the grounds of self-dealing if it is determined that the services or goods rendered by these vendors were not arm’s-length transactions.”
In her own written analysis, Monroe County Legislator Rachel Barnhart in March alleged that these three for-profits inked their involvement with the NCP thanks to connections between their various board members and officers. She questioned the amount of NCP funds going to the for-profits and raised doubts about whether the firms should be considered subrecipients rather than contractors.
Barnhart says she wrote to the United States Attorneys calling for the for-profits to be investigated “for giving themselves no-bid contracts.”
Gary Walker, Monroe County’s spokesperson, told the Rochester Beacon the county is grateful for the attorney general’s investigation.
“Once we were notified of CRC’s mismanagement of American Rescue Plan Act funds, the County immediately contacted the Attorney General’s office, as well as other law enforcement agencies. We were pleased to assist the Attorney General with this matter,” he says.
The petition is being handled by Deputy Assistant Attorney General in Charge Benjamin Bruce and Assistant Attorney General Audrey Cooper of the attorney general’s Rochester Regional Office.
Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].
Troubling on so many levels. Even a quick reading of the audit raises so many questions. How did the county allow these people to operate so loosely with such valuable government funding? One wonders if without the hounding of Barnhart would this have been uncovered. For better or worse this is the kind of shenanigans that feeds the MAGA cult.
Troubling on so many levels. Even a quick reading of the audit raises so many questions. How did the county allow these people allowed to operate so loosely with such valuable government funding? One wonders if without the hounding of Barnhart would this have been uncovered. For better or worse this is the kind of shenanigans that feeds the MAGA cult.