James O’Keefe may be ready to quit Project Veritas, but the Veritas board isn’t ready to say goodbye to James O’Keefe.
The Project Veritas Board of Directors responded to Mr. O’Keefe’s Monday departure by saying it “wants to work things out with James” while accusing him of misusing donor funds with his “excessive” spending.
Board members also insisted that they never fired him, but rather suspended him indefinitely from his role as CEO of the undercover journalism outlet over growing concerns about his treatment of staff and “financial malfeasance that has been discovered, which requires us to act in order to remain in compliance with the law.”
“Although PV Leadership has not concluded looking into the full scale of financial issues over the years, a preliminary review at this time indicates that James has spent an excessive amount of donor funds in the last three years on personal luxuries,” said the board.
Examples cited included $14,000 for a charter flight to fix his boat; $150,000 for private “Black Cars,” and $60,000 for dance events, as well as “Thousands of dollars spent on a DJ and other equipment for personal use” and “Hundreds of other acts of personal inurement.”
“More is still being uncovered during the ongoing review at this time,” said the board. “Contrary to many reports from today, James was suspended indefinitely pending the resolution of a fulsome investigation and clarity which will need to be provided by a third party investigative audit report.”
The board said it made “numerous attempts in the last 14 days to have a conversation with James, but he ignored our outreach.”
“Even with all of this public fallout, the Board still wants to speak with James,” said the statement. “We did not fire him, nor do we want him to resign. We would like to continue conversations with James to resolve internal matters rather than litigate them publicly.”
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) February 21, 2023
Whether this marriage can be saved remains to be seen. Mr. O’Keefe cleaned out his personal items Monday and left Project Veritas headquarters in Mamaroneck, New York, after board members refused his demand for them to resign over what he called the “emotional circus that has been created by your actions.”
Mr. O’Keefe told the Project Veritas staff in a videotaped Monday farewell that the board stripped him two weeks ago of his authority as CEO, removed from the board, prohibited him from accessing donor information, and told him to take two weeks’ leave.
He said he did as the board asked by going off the grid. At one point he went hiking with vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Within a few days of going off the grid, I started receiving missed calls and texts from the same board members and officers who demanded I be gone,” Mr. O’Keefe said. “They informed the staff they were waiting to hear from me. I found that odd. There was a corporate resolution demanding that I be gone for two weeks. I was a little worried about violating the corporate resolution. Wouldn’t you?”
The board also said that Mr. O’Keefe “left us no choice but to suspend him in the last few weeks when he unilaterally fired the CFO, who can only be fired with Board approval,” referring to Project Veritas CFO Tom O’Hara.
“James went as far as to say that a Board member had approved this firing to others, but it was later discovered that it was not the case. That member did not approve the firing,” said the board. “The Board approved James’ suspension so it would have time to properly investigate these internal infractions.”
Founded by Mr. O’Keefe in 2010, the undercover journalism outfit operates as a nonprofit organization with 501c3 and 501c4 status.
“The Board has a legal obligation to comply with state and federal law, and these matters are serious ones that cannot be ignored,” said the board statement.
Mr. O’Keefe acknowledged that he pink-slipped the CFO, but said that he has been required over the years to make painful decisions to fire employees, including a good friend from college, in the best interests of the company.
He took issue with some of the charges leveled against him, such as being accused of using $12,000 in company funds to pay for his wedding. Mr. O’Keefe has never been married. The money was used to rent a wedding venue for the company Christmas party.
He defended his travel expenses, agreeing that he regularly takes private cars but that his journalism work and fundraising duties cannot be conducted effectively via Zoom. The nonprofit raised $22 million in donations in 2020.
“I don’t know how I can do my job here if I can’t transport myself around the United States,” Mr. O’Keefe said. “It actually doesn’t make any actual sense, does it? None of this makes any sense. And why is it all happening right now? Those are the questions I have. I don’t have answers.”
At a six-and-a-half-hour board meeting two weeks ago, he said he was subjected to a “list of grievances” that included berating staffers and stealing a sandwich from a pregnant woman in front of a federal jury.
Mr. O’Keefe acknowledged that “I’m a hard guy to work for sometimes,” which he attributed in part to his breakneck schedule and drive to build Veritas, but added that he’s always been that way.
“Nothing about how I’ve conducted myself over the past 13 years has really fundamentally changed, until now,” he said. “So what has changed in the last three weeks? What has changed? The only thing that has changed is that we broke the biggest story in our organization’s history. You know that one I’m talking about. Pfizer.”
Project Veritas released hidden-camera footage Jan. 25 of a Pfizer executive saying the pharmaceutical giant had explored mutating the COVID-19 virus to develop preemptively new vaccines. Pfizer responded that it “has not conducted gain of function or directed evolution research” with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr. O’Keefe also indicated that he may be ready to move on and “start anew.”
“Our mission continues on. I’m not done,” he told the staff. “The mission will perhaps take on a new name and it may no longer be called Veritas. I’ll need a bunch of people around me, and I’ll make sure you know how to find me.”
Meanwhile, the board said “Project Veritas will continue to be transparent with the public as more information can be released over time.”
“The fight for truth will never stop,” said the board statement.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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